Category Archives: Quote

Johanna von Keyserlingk: Vessel for the Etheric Christ

March 16, 2020Celestial Event, History, Insight, Rudolf Steiner Quote~hag

Beloved Friends – The Gospel of John reveals these words spoken by The Christ on Earth:

“..I am the way, the truth, and the life..” ~John 14:6

“..You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free..” ~John 8:32

“..When the Spirit of Truth comes, it will guide you into the full truth..” ~John 16:13

“..Make them holy by your truth; teach them your word, which is truth.” ~John 17:17

Image result for lies of the demon painting — Benoît-Hermogaste Molin

Here is an interesting quote from Steiner for us to consider at this time:

“Imagine a people which was composed entirely of liars, the astral plane would be populated solely by the corresponding demons and these demons would be able to express themselves in a constitutional tendency to epidemics. Thus there is a certain species of bacilli who are the carriers of infectious diseases; these beings are the progeny of the lies told by human beings; they are nothing else than physically embodied demons generated by lies.” ~Rudolf Steiner, Theosophy of the Rosicrucian, Lecture VI, The Law of Destiny, GA 99, Schmidt Number: S-1539 (thanks to Josef Graf) https://wn.rsarchive.org/GA/GA0099/19070530p01.html

Image result for human radiant painting — Goya

Friends, we are being called to strive more & more, to live as ‘Christ in me’, taking up the healing medicine of the Spirit, which makes us whole, & then sharing it thru our every thought, word & deed.

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In early dawn, watch the waning Moon step toward and then past Jupiter, Mars, and Saturn -- March 16-20, 2020..

16 March 2020 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Sirius shines brilliantly in the southwest after dark. Lower left of it, by about one fist, is the triangle of Adhara, Wezen, & Aludra, from right to left. They form Canis Major‘s hind foot, rear end, & tail, respectively.

Just left of these 3, forming an arc, are the 3 uppermost stars of the constellation Puppis. No, Puppis is not a puppy, despite following behind the Big Dog. It’s the stern of the giant ancient constellation Argo Navis, the ship of Jason & the Argonauts.

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Image result for kith harring — Keith Haring

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

1244 – Over 200 Cathars who refuse to recant are burned to death after the Fall of Montségur.

1966 – Death Day of Countess Johanna von Keyserlingk

Johanna von Keyserlingk: Vessel for the Etheric Christ

Humanity is ripe for ‘the Christ experience’ such as Paul had outside Damascus. Johanna von Keyserlingk, the hostess of the conference in Koberwitz in 1924 where biodynamic agriculture was born, was one such person. Inwardly she was also the hostess of powerful spiritual observations.

As an 8-year-old girl of noble birth, while walking with her governess in the Vienna Woods in 1887, she meets a thin, 26-year-old man, with dark hair & powerful eyes, who looks at her with a penetrating gaze. This meeting lives & works in her until, at the end of the 1^st World War, as a 39-year-old Countess, she meets a 56-year-old man. She had already attended 2 of his lectures & read some of his books. After this meeting she is able to speak with him in private. He asks her where she was at the age of 8. After some thought, she comes to nothing but the place – Breslau, where she lived then. But he shakes his head, apparently he means something else with his question. Johanna has more conversations with him & six months later he repeats the question. Then she suddenly remembers the young man in the Vienna Woods who had looked at her with such wonderful eyes. This man was, of course, Rudolf Steiner.

On March 26, 1879, on the threshold of the beginning of the new Michael era, Johanna was born in Brno. Her father, which she described as a true despot, was the son of Scottish nobility -Karl von Skene. He went to Silesia via Austria & married her future mother, Klara Schoeller, who came from a family of industrialists. Together with 3 brothers (Karl, Philipp & Robert) she lived near her father’s estates.

Her clairvoyant powers were revealed early on, which was not unusual in her father’s Celtic line. These experiences made her both lonely & independent at an early age. Not understood by the people in her environment, she often sought comfort in nature, in the park near ancient trees, & there she had contact with the elemental spirits.

About this time she wrote: “I remember very well that as a small child I could look at the window between the bars of my bed and see the sun rise in the morning and that I experienced the sun as what other children see as their mother and father. I remember also, that the other children I played with often chased me, especial the time when I correctly predicted the death of an adult as if it were self-evident. However, when I noticed that not even my mother saw what I perceived spiritually, I kept silent.”

At the end of her teens, she became involved with Kant’s philosophy, with Angelus Silesius & with the poet Hölderlin. In 1899 when she was 21 years old, she married Count Carl Wilhelm von Keyserlingk, & had 3 boys: Wolfgang (1900), & a boy (1902) who soon died, & Adalbert (1905). They went to live in Klettendorff, not far from Breslau. Later this became the castle Koberwitz (1920), partly on the advice of Steiner.

Because of her devoted son Adalbert, most of the memoirs & notes were made public, but only after Johanna died at the age of 87. With intimate friends such as Rudolf Meyer (who lived in Koberwitz for 3 years), Emil Bock, Friedrich Rittelmeyer, Eliza von Moltke, Margarita Woloschina & Monica von Miltitz, she did share her experiences & her confidential conversations with Steiner during her life.

When she was 28, Johanna went thru a painful phase in her life. She was sick in bed due to an entopic pregnancy, which almost killed her. What she experienced was that some sort of strange individuality wanted to incarnate in her.

“When I had been given up by the doctors and felt that my life force was leaving me, I suddenly saw a shining figure next to the bed, from which a penetrating force emanated.”

And the first words she was able to speak after this experience were:

“Me and my house want to serve the Lord; for I have experienced what the captain of Capernaum experienced.” ( ~ Matthew 8:5-10 ‘And when Jesus entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, imploring Him, 6and saying, “Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, fearfully tormented.” 7Jesus said to him, “I will come and heal him.” 8But the centurion said, “Lord, I am not worthy for You to come under my roof, but just say the word, and my servant will be healed. 9“For I also am a man under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to this one, ‘Go!’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come!’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this!’ and he does it.” 10Now when Jesus heard this, He marveled and said to those who were following, “Truly I say to you, I have not found such great faith with anyone in Israel. 11“I say to you that many will come from east and west, and recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven; 12but the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” 13And Jesus said to the centurion, “Go; it shall be done for you as you have believed.” And the servant was healed that very moment’. )

“When I heard from the doctors that there was no more salvation for me, which I had already experienced myself, I knew: now I will reach the goal of my life, the Christ. Either in death or in the spirit world. White starlight was around me, and I was thinking of the fevered son of Capernaum’s chieftain. Science dawned on me: when you now see the Christ, he can also restore earth life to you. There were energies buzzing next to me and a fire figure appeared next to my bed. Such strength emanated from him that I believed I could not bear it. It was like over-tensioning the atmosphere because of the pressing of the ether. I felt as if that would tear me apart and heard the words: Go, your faith has helped you …

It was a very white silence around me, and glittering life entered me from there. The pains were gone. The doctor came and assumed that this condition was agony. But life continued to shine, and when my husband asked what had happened, I could only say that in the New Testament he had to seek out the healing of Capernaum. As of this hour, there was only a common solution for us. Me and my house want to serve the Lord. My illness was gone and life took a different direction. But as bright was the light that I had seen, so dark was the time I had to live in the following years. It was like I was going to die. For years now I had experienced the terrible of death in all phases.”

Her brow bone, just above the root of the nose, literally shattered. Years later, bone splinters that had grown out had to be removed using tweezers. With the forehead chakra released in this radical way, her clairvoyant experiences increased in number & intensity.

What is expressed in this event? Perhaps people who were associated with Christ on earth had a role to play in preparing for His return in the etheric, starting in the 20^th century; a karmic bond that is revealed in this time of the Second Coming. Rudolf Steiner talked about the youth of Nain, who was raised from the dead by Christ & so was initiated into a task for the future of humanity. Steiner also pointed out the connection between the resurrected Lazarus John & the teacher of humanity, Christian Rosenkreutz. This is also the time when Steiner describes Christ becoming the Lord of karma.

At the ‘Turning Point of Time’ the apostles gathered by Christ were the 1^st to be inaugurated into this new impulse, there must be anthroposophers starting in the 30’s & into our time now that are able to receive the inspiration of Christ, now as Lord of Karma. Anthroposophy wants to be a movement of people who work to restore their karma.

Steiner tells us: Spiritual science “imposes enormous responsibility upon us, for it prepares for the concrete event of the reappearance of Christ.” It is known that Steiner took actual people as examples for some of the characters in his mystery dramas. Perhaps Johanna was the model for Theodora?

According to Steiner, Johanna had an awakened consciousness that would become normal perhaps a 1000 years in the future! Perhaps this ‘premature birth’ was what caused her so much pain in her life…? And yet, Steiner called the figure next to the sick bed of Johanna the Christ power.

In one of the conversations with Steiner, he also warned that Johanna was facing great Luciferic dangers, but that she had special qualities – the iron of Mars, that could protect her from this. He called her ‘the Iron Countess’.

In 1915, Johanna started to write down a series of imaginations that she received. This lead to a book that describes the fortunes of a grail knight going through a mental training: the was named book ‘Gralburg’ (Grail Castle). In the preface she writes:

In these imaginations my own experience in full reality passes by. It is lived more real than earthly events are experienced. As the images are there, that’s how I experienced them. Often the images and words sounded strange and inexplicable, I did not understand them and I do not understand much of them nowadays, but I could not change anything, because I wanted to stay with the truth. Often the end of an image was added as an explanation only after years. Real spirit beings met the spirit student, and they addressed him in real words. These spiritual words have actually been spoken to him.

As far as I can judge, these things have lived in the astral. The astral, however, takes place in the interior of the earth in the direction of midnight. This astral is invisible in itself and fine visible form force expresses itself in the periphery of the earth, in the ether world. That which happens invisibly in the depths, is imprinted in the ether and comes to visibility, and what I saw there I wrote down.

This book cannot be judged by a literary standard. I wrote it down for myself and I don’t feel the need for others to read it. If it were just me, I would put it in a desk drawer; and then it can be read after my death or not. And when I am asked now, yes, why do you spend it anyway, then I can only answer – not for my sake, but so that the others hear of the figure so lovingly striding through the hall.

‘Imagine a fine brilliance of tender sunlight
flowing from his soul
Imagine a pair of warm eyes, so full of love
that you start to glow, and you kneel
Imagine a mouth from which truth springs
as if from a deep source the deity itself arises,
it sounds so beautiful, that forever
you would like to listen to this voice in reverence.

Imagine his hands caressing your hair
with a gesture that heals all suffering.
Yes, under their light springs the new life we seek!
Imagine a ruler striding like this
and highest heavenly threads are for him
and where his foot goes is light
that shows us the right way.
Do you see his garment shining from afar
then the fire starts to burn in your heart,
it is so beautiful that you cannot comprehend it.

And he sees your suffering
and he approaches you
which makes your heart completely still.
And gently, like the song of angelic children,
the air that blows towards you is so lovely.

You can put your head on his knee in quiet humility
and deep peace comes into you.
The sun radiates from his holy body
and sun flows over your mind,
and you see jubilantly in the golden distance,
your homeland, where he draws you’.

At the end of this ‘hymn’ her footnote : “At the sight of the Nazarene standing before me, written down in a short moment”.

Through the book: “Koberwitz 1924, Geburtsstunde einer neuen Landwirtschaft, moment of birth of a new agriculture”, many people learn the name of the Keyserlingk family. At the time, Koberwitz was an estate owned by the family, near Breslau.

At Pentecost in 1924, a gathering took place there in the penultimate year before Rudolf Steiner’s untimely death, to which many attendees have fond memories. From the descriptions of the different souls you can get the feeling that there was a true cosmopolitan Pentecostal Spirit. As the title of the book indicates, this was also the time & place where the birth of bio-dynamic agriculture can be placed.

A lot happened there in the days of June 7-17, 1924. For example, it was the first time the Johani Epistle was pronounced at the altar, during the Christian Community Service (established 2 years earlier). The impression arises that in Koberwitz a successful meeting between the royal & the priestly streams took place. In total there were 120 people, many with an agricultural background, but also many others who attended, for example, there were evening lectures on karma & the Eurythmy performances, that attracted folks such as Eliza von Moltke, Rittelmeyer, Bock, Wachsmuth, Koschützki, Marie Steiner, Vreede & many others. So these days were busy with all kinds of activities. It was later discovered that at night Steiner wrote whole parts of his autobiography, which appeared shortly afterwards in the weekly Das Goetheanum & were later compiled into his biography; he also received & answered countless mail correspondences.

In addition to esoteric hours, in the evening, a large number of people had personal conversations with Steiner. with all this work, it was surprising to many that Steiner, who made an extremely tired impression on arrival, gradually became more vital. From those 12 special days around Dr. Steiner arose many personal memories form the participants.

Here’s a good example of ‘how karma works’. In principle, the course was only intended for people with an agricultural background. And yet, Young Wilhelm Rath, as one of the initiators of the youth movement, passed by Koberwitz to deliver some notes by Walter Johannes Stein, in which he describes his own spiritual experiences, for Rudolf Steiner. The post-office was not appropriate for such personal documents, so WJ Stein asked Rath to hand them over personally. Because of this, Rath was then allowed to attend the entire Agricultural course, although Wachsmuth was worried at 1st about breaking the rules. This later turns out to be an important turning point in Rath’s career.

The book Koberwitz 1924 not only gives a nice impression of the conference but also of Johanna herself. We read that she played a harmonium for the guests, that she & her husband were the perfect hosts, & that she personally took care of the flowers & plants in the castle park. The Staff loved her. A chambermaid, who also wrote a contribution in the book heaped praises on her.

A life motto for the Count & Countess was: Founding places of love and peace, where the Christ can be resurrected – this was engraved on a memorial for Steiner after he died.

She described to Steiner, the image of a fairytale-like white mosque with a minaret & she heard the word Bosphorus. According to her, this was the answer to a question she had been dealing with for a long time.

Later on at Christmas 1925, after Steiner had died, she was with severe pneumonia in Sonnenhof in Arlesheim, where Ita Wegman nursed her. There, Mieta Waller asked her if she could use her clairvoyance to help find the Palladium in Constantinople. After all, legend tells that Emperor Constantine buried the Palladium under a large column. This question was the start of a long search that would be continued by her son Adalbert.

The Palladium has been called the greatest solar gem on Earth by Steiner, & world evolution depends on whether this underground sun-sanctuary is illuminated by “the sun of the west” – the new light of human thought. A truly cryptic description! Especially since Steiner also indicated that it would be an actual object buried somewhere. The comparison can then be made between the physically present cup of the last supper & the transcendent grail.

She made a trip to Constantinople, to Hagia Sophia & experienced all kinds of things that are described in her diary, including that she had seen this mosque in the image of a ghost. Physical indications & images not yet understood alternated. However, the Palladium was not found. It is questionable whether the Palladium might have been found spiritually. However, she said, this cannot be discussed it is “a question for the future”.

In the Achmedie Imperial Palace, she received gruesome images inscribed in the ether of the Council of Constantinople in 869 AD., where she recognized ahrimanic inspirations. Steiner often spoke of this council where the “spirit” of the human being was abolished. Here she experienced what Steiner called a second Golgotha, & the moment when the karma of humanity began to become disordered.

In Hagia Sophia, however, she experienced the luminous presence of Christ & of Michael, like ‘the sunrise of a new dawn‘.

It is a risk when people make statements about what they consider to be their previous incarnations. It was not Johanna’s intention that her own research would be made public during her lifetime. She did, however, discuss it with Steiner & her son Adalbert. He decided to publish the notes after her death.

In 1922 she visited a forest in Rawitz where she had been as a child. “When I arrived, the spirits of the trees and shrubs on this familiar road back started to speak to me, to my surprise. But what they told me this time was not pleasant to me. They told me: “You are free now, you have to deliver us, we are bound to these trees.” And they added, I had tied them to this place myself in a past life. I said to them, “Your trees are not old at all, how can I have met you before?” But they answer: Our fathers were already here, and in them our spirits have inherited themselves. – You shouldn’t leave until you deliver us”.

It is then explained to her how she could accomplish this salvation by making 3 crosses on the trunk while invoking the Father, Son & Holy Spirit. So she does this & from each one a strip of light is released, which then, according to her observation, dissolves in the light of Christ.

Shortly before this, she had images of a man who lived several hundred years ago, who loved to be in nature & had conversations with nature spirits. She had the impression that the man was also involved in magic. He spoke to her : “I am glad that you are here, I have also come to see you. You must carry on with the work that I have begun. I will show you what happened here, and you must then free what I have banned. “

It is characteristic of Johanna that she told Steiner this kind of experience. She was not yet sure about the meaning. Steiner confirmed that this man with faustic traits was a previous incarnation of hers, & that he had banished the elemental beings to the trees. That is why she now had to free them herself.

In an earlier conversation where Eliza von Moltke was also present, Steiner had said, “The countess once experienced that earth life is spiritual death.”

A central theme with Johanna that she always discussed with Steiner (she has about 28 sessions with him) is Shamballah or the golden land, as she calls it. She related that to the moment when the blood of Christ flowed into the earth initiating a new solar globe. She saw out of the earth’s core, a golden fire in the earth’s depth. Like Ptolemy she called this the primal sun. This connected her with Empedocles who plunged into the fire of Mount Etna.

She described it in the following way in a question to Steiner: “…originally there was the fire and the light. These lived together in a deep harmony. Then the light rejected the power of the fire, and the smoke, which could no longer rise in the light, returned and covered the fire, and so the primeval fire was covered with a layer of ash. This axis is the mineral of the Earth. At first people saw through it to their primal home, the primal sun, but the earth became more and more dense and the smoke darkened more and more. Man seemed to be separated from the primeval sun (which is paradise) by the mineral layer. With this primeval sun which has been revived by the Christ, man must try to unite again.”

Steiner confirmed to her that this primordial sun is also the land of Shamballah, where the initiates of all time took their inspiration and what will become visible to all people in the future. It is closely related to the etheric second coming of the Christ & His work on a new heaven & a new earth in which people must play an active role.

Steiner spoke fondly of the Iron Count & Countess, he called them that, not only because the Koberwitz land which was iron rich. He wanted Johanna to conquer & free her clairvoyance with her iron will, which was linked to her innate clairvoyance, & also from her dependence on Steiner’s influence.

Before she met Steiner, Johanna had a life where everything came to her. Spiritual guidance had provided for her fortunes. But this would change soon. They were able to remain in Koberwitz for only 4 years after 1924. A movement started immediately on several fronts, reinforced after Steiner’s death in 1925, that came to destroy the new bio-dynamic impulse. The fertilizer industry, including IG Farben, felt threatened by this new healing art. They wanted to buy the copyright describing the agricultural course for a large sum of money. But Carl declined, partly because he wanted to test it in practice before the course content was published. In the company where Carl worked with several co-owners, tensions grew & he had to leave the field in 1928. They also left Koberwitz. Shortly after, he died en route to Dornach. According to Johanna because of a broken heart.

Not much is known about her life after that, except that it was difficult. In 1941 she was captured by the Gestapo, & put under interrogation for days. She saw a figure next to the German officer. But she was not tempted to give in to this demonic being.

After 1945 she could no longer stay in Poland & fled to the west where she ended up in Stuttgart, completely destitute & incognito. In 1949 the book Koberwitz was published as a private edition. In the years before her death she went blind.

Just before this book went to press, she also wrote about Kaspar Hauser, & about her struggle to keep a relationship with Steiner in the spiritual world after his death: “While during the life of Rudolf Steiner one could still live in the sphere of his personal closeness without great effort, it was no longer possible after his death. After the death hour of 1925, there were still encounters in the astral for me. But I think that this is happening more and more at a distance. Was the atmosphere of the earth obscured by what was preparing for threats there in Germany? We were alone, as if deserted. It was as if there was an impenetrable dark night in the otherwise bright atmosphere”.

This shows how difficult it was to hold the Pentecostal substance of Koberwitz in the dark period that was holding sway. After his death she wrote:.

“It was on the morning of Rudolf Steiner’s cremation, which I did not go to. The teacher’s body was still laid out in his studio, where the aura of the beloved teacher appeared next to me. I was told to write. I took paper and pen and the following words came from his presence. Often I could not write quickly enough, then paused and waited until I was back, as Rudolf Steiner used to do when he dictated to me.

“My job has ended.” “What I could give the people who were ready for it, I gave them.” “I am going, because I found no ears that could hear the spiritual word behind the word.” “I am going, because I found no eyes that could see the ghosts behind the earth images.” “I go because I found no people who could realize my will. ” The mysteries remain hidden until I come back. I will come back and reveal the mysteries when I have succeeded in creating an altar, a cultic place for human souls, in spirit worlds. Then I’ll come back. Then I will continue to reveal the mysteries. “

“Those are to blame for my death, which have held back the culture of the heart. Had people pushed through their hearts into the depths, they would have found the strength for the challenges of this time.”

There are many Anthroposophers who do not consider these statements to come from Steiner but rather see them as a projection from Johanna herself, or from the adversarial forces trying to cloud the message.

We do know that Rudolf Steiner is able to teach his students from the spirit body, as indicated in the mystery dramas.

A short conversation with Steiner in 1924, before his death, will conclude this biography for now.

Johanna: “Mankind is spoiled anyway [miscarriages]“. Steiner: “Yes, you can say that.” Johanna: “But what will happen at the end of the century?” Steiner in despair: “I don’t know either – but Ahriman is also part of Christ.”

May we all find the “The Way, the Truth & the Life…& work to purify ourselves, to be a fit vessel for the Christ, & for the work of embodying Anthroposophia

~hag

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R. Steiner, in:The Gospel of Matthew(Zeist 2003, GA 123), lecture, Sept. 10. 1910

M. von Miltitz, in Foreword by J. von Keyserlingk,Die Reise nach Byzanz-Das Palladium des Sieges(Basel 1991)

Erlöste Elemente(Stuttgart 1991)

Palladiump. 16

Adalbert (died 23-10-1993), besides an enthusiastic promoter of biodynamic agriculture, also a doctor and researcher of ancient mystery places, wroteVergessene Kulturen im Monte Gargano(Nürnberg 1968) andUnd sie erstarrten in Stein(Basel 1983).

Die Reise nach Byzanz-Das Palladium des Sieges,p. 16. InIn the Gospels there are several references to Capernaum and a healing of a sick person through Christ. Johanna talks about a chief and his sick son. Matthew 8 speaks of a chief of Capernaum and his sick servant; in Luke 7 about a chief and his sick slave ; in John 4 about a courtier and his sick son.

Koberwitz 1924, Geburtsstunde einer neuen Landwirtschaft(Privatdruck 1985) p. 25f

InIJsselaarde. Magazine to deepen the relationship with the living environment(Sept. 1999)

Wiedergerufen vom Herrn des Schicksals and Falter und Bluete (with poems) (Dornach 1998)

KC Markides, The magician of Strovolos (Deventer 1995), see also the article by G. Zwahlen about Daskalos inDas Goetheanum,number 34, Dec. 3. 1995

GA 118, Jan 25. 1910

The Gospel according to Matthew(Zeist 2003, GA 123), lecture 10 Sept. 1910

Gralburg(Stuttgart 1968, antiquarian still available sporadically). It was thrown into the lap many years ago through a book flea market. That eventually led to this article. Steiner already thought that the book should be made public because it demonstrates how an individual path of development can proceed.

H. Giersch (ed.)Das Ätherische Christus-Wirken. Rudolf Steiner über die Wiederkunft Christivan Harold Giersch (Dornach 1991)

G. Hillerdal and B. Gustafsson,Christ experiences today(Bergen op Zoom 2002); HW. Schroeder, On the second coming of Christ (Zeist 2000); HP van Moons,Coming and Second Coming – About the second coming of Christ and the coming of anti-christ(Zeist 1999); G. Bossis,My shadow, that is your neighbor(Zeist 2001); G. Goelzer and M. Friederich,Falter und Bluete – Christuswort und Christerkenntnis(Dornach 1994); Wiedergerufen vom Herrn des Schicksals, A1 Die Samariterin am Brunnen(Dornach 1998)

Fertile agriculture(Zeist 1992,GA 327)

The Aya (or: Hagia) Sophia, completed in 537 on the site where a church was built in 360, became a mosque in 1453 and has been a museum since 1932.

H. Oehms,Know your karma – Karma insight and self-development(Zeist 2000); F. Berger,fellow sufferers, coherence between different lives on the track(Zeist 2000); J. Saether,Wandeln unter unsichtbaren Menschen(Stuttgart 1999). About learning to look at people in order to place them in a spiritual context, without speaking directly about previous incarnations, see: A. Koopmans,Kijk op karma(Zeist 2002) andPractical human science(Zutphen 2004)

J.Ben Aharon,The spiritual event of the 20th century. An imagination. The occult dimension of the years 1933-1945(Zeist 1996)

R. Steiner (GA 118) nomination Munich March 15, 1910

The years 1933-1945 could have been illuminated by her from her clairvoyant fireplaces. You can suspect that J. Ben Aharon experienced this lack as well and that is why he connects with Johanna in his book about those years.

In various terms this theme is mentioned “altar in the spiritual world”, as is also the case in the speech for the youth in Koberwitz:“spiritual light will only come in this century, if Michael succeeds in the way in the astral light to the altar where the flame burns that Ahriman fears. ” Also inHelmuth von Moltke 1848-1916. Dokumente zu seinem Wirken(Basel 1993) March 27, 1919

In:Koberwitz 1924, p. 177

These statements (as well as the following) make it clear that Steiner saw a hopeful future. In lectures (GA 346) for the priests of the Christian Community he mentioned the year 1933 in which the apocalyptic beast would stir again. –

Thought Experiments

March 14, 2020Chicago Event, Insight, Poetry, Remembering, Rudolf Steiner Quote~hag

Many of us are doing Hallelujah in Eurythmy & The Foundation Stone Meditation at Sunrise every morning to create a high vibration of Love & Light – Please join us for the healing of all.

Jupiter, Mars and Saturn in the dawn sky, mid-March 2020

14 March 2020 – “Speaking with the Stars”: “If seeds in the black earth can turn into such beautiful flowers, what might not the heart become in the long journey towards the stars?”~ G K Chesterton

Why is Pi Day celebrated on March 14th? Well, it’s because the Greek letter Pi (π) is used in mathematics to represent a constant – originally this was the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter, but it has various definitions now & is used in many mathematics & physics formulas. Pi is most commonly shown as being 3.14159 but this is just an approximate value. It’s an irrational number, & its decimal representation never ends. Pi is the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter, so today we celebrate all things circular. Take a look at what one million digits of pi looks like!

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Looking at the past to see the present, co-creating the future: “History, historical life, will only be seen in the right light when a true consciousness of the connection of the so-called living with the so-called dead can be developed” – The Living & the Dead by Rudolf Steiner, Berlin, 5th February, 1918

Feast Day of Abigail (Hebrew “my father’s joy”) in 2 Samuel 17:25 she became a wife of David after Nabal’s death. She became the mother of one of David’s sons, who is listed in the Book of Chronicles under the name Daniel. Abigail is also listed as one of the seven Jewish women prophets.

44 BC – Casca & Cassius decide, on the night before the Assassination of Julius Caesar, that Mark Antony should live

1489 – The Queen of Cyprus, Catherine Cornaro, sells her kingdom to Venice

1592 – Ultimate Pi Day: the largest correspondence between calendar dates & significant digits of pi since the introduction of the Julian calendar.

1794 – Eli Whitney is granted a patent for the cotton gin

1879 – Birthday of Albert Einstein! (1879 is the year Michael became the Time-Spirit) see article below

1900 – The Gold Standard Act is ratified, placing United States currency on the gold standard.

1903 – The Hay–Herrán Treaty, granting the United States the right to build the Panama Canal, is ratified by the United States Senate. The Colombian Senate would later reject the treaty

1926 – El Virilla train accident, Costa Rica: A train falls off a bridge over the Río Virilla between Heredia and Tibás. 248 are killed & 93 wounded

1943 – World War II: The Kraków Ghetto is “liquidated”

1978 – The Israel Defense Forces invade & occupies southern Lebanon, in Operation Litani

1681 – Birthday of Georg Philipp Telemann, a German Baroque composer & multi-instrumentalist. Almost completely self-taught in music, he became a composer against his family’s wishes. He held important positions in Leipzig, Sorau, Eisenach,& Frankfurt before settling in Hamburg in 1721, where he became musical director of the city’s five main churches. While Telemann’s career prospered, his personal life was always troubled: his first wife died only a few months after their marriage, & his second wife had extramarital affairs & accumulated a large gambling debt before leaving Telemann.

Telemann was one of the most prolific composers in history & was considered by his contemporaries to be one of the leading German composers of the time—he was compared favorably both to his friend Johann Sebastian Bach, who made Telemann the godfather & namesake of his son Carl Philipp Emanuel, & to George Frideric Handel, whom Telemann also knew personally. He remained at the forefront of all new musical tendencies & his music is an important link between the late Baroque & early Classical styles

1790 – Birthday of Ludwig Emil Grimm, a German painter, art professor, etcher & copper engraver. His brothers were the well-known folklorists Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm

1804 – Birthday of Johann Strauss I, an Austrian Romantic composer. He was famous for his waltzes, & he popularized them alongside Joseph Lanner, thereby setting the foundations for his sons to carry on his musical dynasty. His most famous piece is the Radetzky March

1867 – Birthday of Marie Steiner von Sivers – born into an aristocratic family in Włocławek, Poland, then part of Russia. She was well-educated &was fluent in Russian, German, English, French & Italian. She studied theater & recitation with several teachers in Europe.

Marie von Sivers “appeared one day” at one of Rudolf Steiner’s early lectures in 1900. In the autumn of 1901, she posed the question to Steiner, “Would it be possible to create a spiritual movement based on European tradition and the impetus of Christ?” Rudolf Steiner later reported: With this, I was given the opportunity to act in a way that I had only previously imagined. The question had been put to me, and now, according to spiritual laws, I could begin to answer it.

Marie Steiner-von Sivers & Rudolf Steiner were married on Christmas eve 1914, & she was one of his closest colleagues. Marie von Sivers collaborated with Steiner for the rest of his life & carried his work beyond his death in 1925 until her own death in 1948. She accompanied him & helped him as secretary, translator, editor, & organizer of his lecture tours & other public activities. She assisted Steiner’s work with her own resources & in 1908 founded the Philosophical-Theosophical Press (later Philosophical-Anthroposophical) to publish Steiner’s work

She made a great contribution to the development of anthroposophy, particularly in her work on the renewal of the performing arts (eurythmy, speech & drama), & the editing & publishing of Rudolf Steiner’s literary estate.

Starting in 1912, the art of eurythmy was developed by Rudolf Steiner. Under Marie Steiner-von Sivers’ guidance, it developed in three directions, as a stage art, as an integral part of Waldorf pedagogy, & as a therapeutic method. Under her tutelage, two schools of eurythmy were founded, in Berlin & in Dornach, Switzerland.

Marie von Sivers was trained in recitation & elocution & made a study of purely artistic speaking. She gave introductory poetry recitals at Steiner’s lectures & assisted him in the development of the 4 Mystery Dramas (1910–1913). With her help, Steiner conducted several speech & drama courses with the aim of raising these forms to the level of true art. Ms Steiner died on December 27th 1948

1883 – Deathday of Karl Marx. Rudolf Steiner revealed that Marx was a landowner in Northern France in the early 9th century, & that one day his property was seized by a rival. Marx was then forced to work under the new owner of his former property. The new owner reincarnated as Friedrich Engels, who embarked on a compensatory cooperation with his former rival. So it is that old impulses of destiny may work on in a new incarnation. No wonder that Marx became a fierce enemy of all private property, having himself experienced in a previous life how insecure the private ownership of property can become. Those seeking deeper insight into this historic-karmic background of Marx & Engels & their activities are referred to Steiner’s lecture of 6 April 1924. GA 236.

1923 – Birthday of Diane Arbus, American photographer & writer noted for photographs of marginalized people—dwarfs, giants, transgender people, nudists, circus performers—& others whose normality was perceived by the general populace as ugly or surreal. In 1972, a year after she committed suicide, Arbus became the first American photographer to have photographs displayed at the Venice Biennale. Millions viewed traveling exhibitions of her work in 1972–1979. The book accompanying the exhibition, Diane Arbus: An Aperture Monograph, is the bestselling photography monograph ever, still being reprinted today

1932 – Deathday of George Eastman, American inventor & businessman, founded Eastman Kodak

***

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~Where there is no road
A wise hag is on a thought walk,
Bowed under the weight of her soul,
Clinging like a child to her back.
She spits words into hard ground where they cover themselves
& wait like seeds…
She knows, when the time is ripe,
The wheat will rise up singing…
~hag

***

CREATIVE SPEECH from ‘Das Goetheanum,’ 7th March, 1926 By Marie Steiner von Sivers

“SPEECH reveals to the human being their divine nature; the sounds of speech are creative forces which unite us with our spiritual origin and enable us, once again, to find the path leading to the spirit. Speech raises the human being above the level of the animal; it leads us back to the Divine within our Ego. That spark from the Divine Ego, which, issuing forth, prepared itself to become human, had of necessity, as it traveled the path leading into the material world, to unite itself with the forces of destruction. When the densifying process worked too strongly, damming up the spirit, as it were, then the form could be cast off by the ever-recurring forces of death and change. Thus there arose the animal kingdom, which may be likened to a kind of extended alphabet, containing within it all that burdened humanity too heavily when we carried it compressed within the limits of our own being. In the human being it was able to be so far clarified that it could develop into the Word, into Speech. Sound, tone in the animal kingdom cannot rise to the level of speech. It remains mere noise in the case of cold-blooded animals, and, in the case of warm-blooded animals, inarticulate sound. Even in its most beautiful form, in the song of the birds, cosmic tone cannot fully reveal itself; the song of the birds is at most only its faintest echo. It is in speech that the individual force of the Ego first finds expression through tone and becomes aware of its own being. Through speech, cosmic forces can, as it were, focus themselves in an individual Ego and from out this Ego work creatively once more.

When the human being raises to the upright position, when we change from the horizontal position natural to the animal to the vertical position of the human being, we free the forces of speech. The child is overshadowed by these forces; as their individuality develops they become more and more strongly united with them. The child does not say ‘ I ’ of themselves so long as their utterance is mere incoherent babbling. In personal desire, in egoism, the lower ego in the first place struggles through, expressing itself in wishes and desires, afterwards working its way through to feeling and thence into thought. Thought enters into the human being through the gate of speech. Pictures, imaginations are in this way raised up into the consciousness. Through this interplay of processes the human being becomes a thinking being.

A ray from the spiritual essence of the Sun enters into the human being through the mind. In the German language there is a reflection of this in the words ‘Sonne’ (Sun) and ‘Sinn’ (Mind), where the all-embracing, all-enclosing vowel sound ‘ O ’ is transformed into an arrow of light in the vowel sound ‘ E ’ (ee)”.

***

Albert Einstein was slow to speak or read, & he was considered a poor student. He found inspiration in playing the violin. Einstein’s parents were secular, middle-class Jews. His father, Hermann Einstein, was originally a featherbed salesman, and later ran an electrochemical factory with moderate success.

Einstein would write that two “wonders” deeply affected his early years. The first was his encounter with a compass at age five. He was mystified that invisible forces could deflect the needle. This would lead to a lifelong fascination with invisible forces. The second wonder came at age 12 when he discovered a book of geometry, which he devoured, calling it his “sacred little geometry book.”

Einstein became deeply religious at age 12, even composing several songs in praise of God and chanting religious songs on the way to school. This began to change, however, after he read science books that contradicted his religious beliefs. This challenge to established authority left a deep and lasting impression. At the Luitpold Gymnasium, Einstein often felt out of place and victimized by a Prussian-style educational system that seemed to stifle originality and creativity. One teacher even told him that he would never amount to anything.

A pivotal turning point occurred when Einstein was 16 when he was introduced to a children’s science series by Aaron Bernstein, Naturwissenschaftliche Volksbucher in which the author imagined riding alongside electricity that was traveling inside a telegraph wire. Einstein then asked himself the question that would dominate his thinking for the next 10 years: What would a light beam look like if you could run alongside it? If light were a wave, then the light beam should appear stationary, like a frozen wave. Even as a child, though, he knew that stationary light waves had never been seen, so there was a paradox. Einstein also wrote his first “scientific paper” at that time (“The Investigation of the State of Aether in Magnetic Fields”).

Einstein’s education was disrupted by his father’s repeated failures at business. In 1894, after his company failed to get an important contract to electrify the city of Munich, Hermann Einstein moved to Milan to work with a relative. Einstein was left at a boardinghouse in Munich and expected to finish his education. Alone, miserable, and repelled by the looming prospect of military duty, Einstein ran away six months later and landed on the doorstep of his surprised parents. His parents realized the enormous problems that he faced as a school dropout and draft dodger with no employable skills.

Fortunately, Einstein could apply directly to the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School. Einstein would recall that his years in Zürich were some of the happiest years of his life. He met many students who would become loyal friends, such as Marcel Grossmann, a mathematician, and Besso, with whom he enjoyed lengthy conversations about space and time. He also met his future wife, Mileva Maric, a fellow physics student from Serbia.

After graduation in 1900, Einstein faced one of the greatest crises in his life. Because he studied advanced subjects on his own, he often cut classes; this earned him the animosity of some professors, so he was subsequently turned down for every academic position that he applied to.

Meanwhile, Einstein’s relationship with Maric deepened, but his parents vehemently opposed the relationship. (Maric’s family was Eastern Orthodox Christian). Einstein defied his parents, however, and in January 1902 he and Maric even had a child, Lieserl. It is thought that she died of scarlet fever or was given up for adoption.

In 1902 Einstein reached perhaps the lowest point in his life, and his father’s business went bankrupt. Desperate and unemployed, Einstein took lowly jobs tutoring children, but he was fired from even these jobs. Finally he got a job at the Swiss patent office in Bern, which allowed him to think about how the speed of light remains the same no matter how fast one moves. This violates Newton’s laws of motion, but this insight led Einstein to formulate the principle of relativity: “the speed of light is a constant in any inertial frame (constantly moving frame).”

For the next 10 years, Einstein would be absorbed with formulating a theory of gravity in terms of the curvature of space-time. To Einstein, Newton’s gravitational force was actually a by-product of a deeper reality: the bending of the fabric of space and time.

In November 1915 Einstein finally completed the general theory of relativity, which he considered to be his masterpiece. Hewas convinced that general relativity was correct because of its mathematical beauty and because it accurately predicted the precession of the perihelion of Mercury’s orbit around the Sun. His theory also predicted a measurable deflection of light around the Sun. As a consequence, he even offered to help fund an expedition to measure the deflection of starlight during an eclipse of the Sun.

Einstein’s work was interrupted by World War I. A lifelong pacifist, he was only one of four intellectuals in Germany to sign a manifesto opposing Germany’s entry into war. Disgusted, he called nationalism “the measles of mankind.” He would write, “At such a time as this, one realizes what a sorry species of animal one belongs to.”

After the war, the headline of The Times of London read, “Revolution in Science—New Theory of the Universe—Newton’s Ideas Overthrown—Momentous Pronouncement—Space ‘Warped.’” Almost immediately, Einstein became a world-renowned physicist, the successor to Isaac Newton.

Invitations came pouring in for him to speak around the world. In 1921 Einstein began the first of several world tours, visiting the United States, England, Japan, and France. Everywhere he went, the crowds numbered in the thousands. En route from Japan, he received word that he had received the Nobel Prize for Physics, but for the photoelectric effect rather than for his relativity theories. During his acceptance speech, Einstein startled the audience by speaking about relativity instead of the photoelectric effect.

Einstein also launched the new science of cosmology. His equations predicted that the universe is dynamic—expanding or contracting. This contradicted the prevailing view that the universe was static.

Image result for albert einstein charlie chaplen

During a visit to California, Einstein met Charlie Chaplin during the Hollywood debut of the film City Lights. Einstein also began correspondences with other influential thinkers like Sigmund Freud (both of them had sons with mental problems) on whether war was intrinsic to humanity. He discussed with the Indian mystic Rabindranath Tagore the question of whether consciousness can affect existence.

Einstein also clarified his religious views, stating that he believed there was an “old one” who was the ultimate lawgiver. He wrote that he did not believe in a personal God that intervened in human affairs but instead believed in the God of the 17th-century Dutch Jewish philosopher Benedict de Spinoza—the God of harmony and beauty. His task, he believed, was to formulate a master theory that would allow him to “read the mind of God.” He would write: “I’m not an atheist and I don’t think I can call myself a pantheist. We are in the position of a little child entering a huge library filled with books in many different languages.…The child dimly suspects a mysterious order in the arrangement of the books but doesn’t know what it is. That, it seems to me, is the attitude of even the most intelligent human being toward God.”

Inevitably, Einstein’s fame and the great success of his theories created a backlash. The rising Nazi movement found a convenient target in relativity, branding it “Jewish physics” and sponsoring conferences and book burnings to denounce Einstein and his theories. In December 1932 Einstein decided to leave Germany forever

The 1930s were hard years for Einstein. His son Eduard was diagnosed with schizophrenia and suffered a mental breakdown in 1930. (Eduard would be institutionalized for the rest of his life.) Einstein’s close friend, physicist Paul Ehrenfest, who helped in the development of general relativity, committed suicide in 1933. And Einstein’s beloved wife, Elsa, died in 1936. And to his horror, physicists began seriously to consider whether his equation E = mc2 might make an atomic bomb possible. During the war Einstein’s colleagues were asked to journey to the desert town of Los Alamos, New Mexico, to develop the first atomic bomb for the Manhattan Project. Einstein, the man whose equation had set the whole effort into motion, was never asked to participate. Voluminous declassified Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) files, numbering several thousand, reveal the reason: the U.S. government feared Einstein’s lifelong association with peace and socialist organizations. (FBI director J. Edgar Hoover went so far as to recommend that Einstein be kept out of America by the Alien Exclusion Act, but he was overruled by the U.S. State Department.)

Einstein was on vacation when he heard the news that an atomic bomb had been dropped on Japan. Almost immediately he was part of an international effort to try to bring the atomic bomb under control, forming the Emergency Committee of Atomic Scientists.

Although Einstein continued to pioneer many key developments in the theory of general relativity—such as wormholes, higher dimensions, the possibility of time travel, the existence of black holes, and the creation of the universe—he was increasingly isolated from the rest of the physics community. Because of the huge strides made by quantum theory in unraveling the secrets of atoms and molecules, the majority of physicists were working on the quantum theory, not relativity.

Through a series of sophisticated “thought experiments,” Einstein tried to find logical inconsistencies in the quantum theory, particularly its lack of a deterministic mechanism. Einstein would often say that “God does not play dice with the universe.”

The other reason for Einstein’s increasing detachment from his colleagues was his obsession, beginning in 1925, with discovering a unified field theory—an all-embracing theory that would unify the forces of the universe, and thereby the laws of physics, into one framework.

New generations of space satellites have continued to verify the cosmology of Einstein. And many leading physicists are trying to finish Einstein’s ultimate dream of a “theory of everything.”

***

The ‘Merry Prep-Stirs of Chicago‘ invite you to stir it up with us on the Vernal Equinox 19 March 2020 (the earliest date for the Equinox in 124 years) we will gather at 7 pm together with the Thursday Study Group at the Rudolf Steiner Branch while reading Steiner – 4249 N. Lincoln Ave. Chicago, IL. 60618. At this years Fellowship pf Prep makers Gathering, I was gifted the 500 & 501 preps by Lloyd Nelson. We will also work with these at Sunrise on Easter Sunday at the “Magic Hedge” by Montrose Beach. contact Hazel or Brita for Details

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Our dear Dr. Steiner said: ‘It is not the Christ we lack, but the knowledge of Christ, the Sophia of Christ, the Isis of Christ we are lacking.’ In ‘Ancient Myths and the New Isis Mystery: Their Meaning and Connection with Evolution’ Lecture 3; given in Dornach, 6 January 1918, by Rudolf Steiner; we hear how the power of ‘The Word, the power of The Logos’, must be resurrected through our striving to activate the Wisdom of Anthroposophia within each of us. Join Hazel Archer-Ginsberg for a powerful presentation Lifting the Veil of the New Isis-Sophia, to bring Light to Love.

Image result for the divine sophia painting

~Vitae Sophia~A Whitsun Festival of United Soul Endeavor with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

Saturday, 30 May, 9:30 am – 12:30 pm Groh Farm, 135 Temple Rd, Wilton, NH

Eurythmy: AUM = A – I stand for myself, U- I stand for humanity, M – I stand for Life

Social Sculpture: Steiner’s ‘Blue Dot Exercise’– Through Art, the bridge between science & spirit, we warm the ‘I’, to open the heart, in support of healthy community.

What are my gifts-What are my tools? How can I place them in right relationship within the social realm? How can I hone them to strengthen and enhance the world?

Living into the Foundation Stone of Love – How can we take our individual Inner Whitsun & expand it, into what Steiner calls the “World Festival of Knowledge” a path leading from ‘Sprit Recollection’, to ‘Sprit Sensing’, to ‘Sprit Beholding’?

Enter the Labyrinth of ‘Vitae Sophia’ – Human hearts, once warmed, can rise up to meet the source of wisdom, like flowers turning toward the sun.

$30 suggested donation at the door, with potluck lunch to follow
(please bring a dish to share) RSVP deb@anthroposophy.org Sponsored by the Anthroposophical Society in New Hampshire

Hazel Archer-Ginsberg – Founder of Reverse Ritual Understanding Anthroposophy through the Rhythms of the Year.Essayist, Lecturer, Poet, Trans-denominational Minister, ‘Anthroposopher’, working as the Festivals Coordinator of the Chicago Rudolf Steiner Branch, The Traveling Speakers Program, & the Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society.

Whitsun 2020 Vitae Sophia

as part of the tour

3 June 2020 – a Round Table Discussion 7 pm – 9 pm on ‘The Sophia’ with John Bloom, Joan Sleigh, Hazel Archer-Ginsberg & Carrie Schuchardt at The House of Peace in Ipswich, MA.

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In Chicago are creating an opening for what in Rudolf Steiner’s work is called a ‘moral imagination’. So we need friends and communities to join with us to imagine what is possible if the human being was freed from the State and Economic imprint on them today. What do we individually and collectively see as need in our communities?

Inclusivity and diversity of the most broad kind is needed: those who agree and those who do not agree with basic norms and needs of the other have to be in the room to build a collective way forward. NVC people in the room for all feeling safe to share and collaborate from their particular perspective. Courage will be needed to step in and stretch into our becoming.

Rudolf Steiner shares about the threefold commonwealth:

‘It is intended as the expression of what the people’s would do if their own latent powers were recognized and liberated by their respective governments. How to work out the details always becomes clear in such matters, when the path towards realization is entered upon, for they are not instructions as to what is to be done, but forecasts of what will happen when things are allowed to take the path demanded by their essential nature.’

Basics:

Rights Realm – Equality
Having to do with the people to people relations. All people equal under the eyes of the law. Human Rights.

Separating Politics from Money and Culture

Economic Realm – Communityhood
Three Councils – Producers, Distributors, Consumers.
No Sate/Political influence allowed.

‘All economic affairs should be dealt with by separate self governing bodies and a central economic council. Once these are freed from all military and political influence they will be able to develop their business in a manner suitable to the needs of the moment, and according to the laws of economic life itself.’

Cultural Realm – Freedom of the Individual
The State/Politics has no role in this realm.

‘All Judicial, Education, Cultural, Spirit traditions, Science, Art etc. to be left to the free choice of the individual.’

#HowWeWill202
#FormingCurativeCommunities

“Matter is woven light, the soul is cultured love”.

March 13, 2020Celestial Event, Central Regional Council, Chicago Event, Festival, History, Insight, Poetry, Quote, Rudolf Steiner Quote~hag

Friday the 13^th March 2020 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Right after dark at this time of year, 5 carnivore constellations stand upright in a row (emerging from hibernation?), from the northeast to south. They’re all seen in profile with their noses pointed up & their feet to the right. They are Ursa Major the Big Bear in the northeast (with the Big Dipper as its brightest part), Leo the Lion in the east, Hydra the Sea Serpent in the southeast, Canis Minor the Little Dog higher in the south-southeast, & bright Canis Major the Big Dog in the south.

A few days ago on 3/11 (interesting date) it was the anniversary of The 1918 influenza pandemic, known as the ‘Spanish Flu. Analysis of medical journals from the period of the pandemic found that the viral infection was no more aggressive than previous influenza strains. Instead, malnourishment, overcrowded medical camps, hospitals, & poor hygiene promoted bacterial superinfection. This superinfection killed most of the victims, typically after a somewhat prolonged death bed.

Image result for us authorities announcement of coronavirus as pandemic 2020

Considering this historic fact it is interesting to note that on this date 3/11/2020, it was ‘officially’ announced that the corona virus is a ‘pandemic’.

Nutshell compiled from resources below: Viruses come from from the animal kingdom, when the human astral realm is imbalance. “We are currently inflicting unspeakable suffering on animals: from mass slaughter, to experiments with laboratory animals, which leads to pain. Can this suffering lead to consequences that change viruses that are native to the animal organism to the human being?”

Whenever humanity brings an imbalance, illness arises; but nature can always provide a remedy. Our beloved ones in the spiritual world can help us find these remedies.

What else can we do? Avoid alcohol, moderate sugar & maintain a rhythm of life with sufficient sleep & an active relationship with the sun. Potentized phosphorus & potentiated meteor iron in the morning can also support the immune system as light substances.

What weakens the lungs? Two things: lack of relationship with the earth and the sun & social tensions. We must not run away from the other, we must balance social tensions.

Medicine has promoted the belief that vaccinations can protect us against all types of infection. That is a mistake. Vaccination only offers a protection rate of 10 to 30 percent. Careful hand washing & hygiene when blowing your nose & coughing are also effective – without possible side effects. It’s also an important step to let go of a fearful, defensive picture of the environment & your own body & ask what you can do, trusting your own immune system. Sending the light of hope to the world.

All life is One Being. Matter is woven Light. Soul is cultured Love. When there is imbalance humanity is called to bring light to darkness & love to fear, hatred & doubt.

From the Goetheanum except: “…where do these obviously new viruses come from and why did they arise? Interestingly, many of the viruses come from the animal kingdom. The Corona virus probably from the Javanese bat. Why are viruses from the animal kingdom becoming dangerous for humans? We are currently inflicting unspeakable suffering on animals: mass slaughter right up to experiments with laboratory animals lead to pain to which the animal world is helplessly at the mercy. Can this suffering lead to consequences that change viruses that are native to the animal organism? We are used to looking only at the physical level and mostly seeing it separately from the mental level. Research on the intestinal flora, the microbiome, which includes not only bacteria but also viruses, proves the opposite. This raises not only the microbiological question about the origin of the virus, but also the moral question of how to deal with the animal world. Rudolf Steiner pointed out these connections more than 100 years ago. Today it is up to us to investigate these relationships and to ask deeper questions in addition to scientific analysis.

What can we do?

There are now a number of measures in personal behavior that support the organism in coping with the disease. This includes avoiding alcohol, moderate sugar consumption and maintaining a rhythm of life with sufficient sleep and an active relationship with the sun. What our immune system often suffers from is the lack of sunlight, a deficiency that has the greatest impact in March. This is due to the lack of sun over the winter months and reminds us that it is extremely worthwhile to go outside every day and in winter if possible, and thus to connect with the periphery, elementarily with the cosmos. Rudolf Steiner went into the foundation of anthroposophic medicine, Even before vitamin D was discovered, tuberculosis described it in detail. It applies to the immune system that vitamin D tablets can only replace the absorption of sunlight to a limited extent. Potentized phosphorus and correspondingly potentiated meteor iron in the morning can also support the immune system as light substances. For those who are older and perhaps have to do with cardiovascular diseases, anthroposophical basic means for the cardiovascular system, regular walking and adequate sleep are also recommended. Those who sleep less than six hours are much more susceptible to such infections.

A healthy breath to fellow human beings

If there is an illness, then the patient is now kept in quarantine, although minor cases can now also be treated at home. What seems important to me is the fact that anthroposophic medicine has decades of experience in treating viral and bacterial pneumonia without antibiotics with anthroposophic medicines and external applications that can be extremely effective. The medical section of the medical section has developed a corresponding therapy scheme and made it available to international medical colleagues.

What weakens the lungs Two things: lack of relationship with the earth and the sun and social tensions. It is therefore advisable to protect your own lungs, this respiratory organ, from the inside and outside by trying to balance social tensions. In my view, those who are in unresolved social conflicts are at greater risk here. Medicine has promoted the belief that vaccinations can protect you against all types of infection. That is a mistake. Even flu vaccination only offers a protection rate of 10 to 30 percent; Careful hand washing and hygiene when blowing your nose and coughing are also effective – without possible side effects. So it’s an important step to let go of this fearful, defensive picture of the environment and your own body and ask what you can do yourself.

From Rudolf Steiner: “…nature which causes us to rejoice has within it at the same time the mighty healer for all the damage man can cause himself. Somewhere in nature the remedy is concealed. It is a question, not only of understanding the language of the healer, but also of obeying it and really carrying it out. Today it is in most cases impossible for us to hear the voice of healing nature because our misunderstanding of light, and the darkness which has penetrated into knowledge has in many respects brought about conditions preventing us from hearing.

Image result for matter woven out of light & love painting

Here again we see a remarkable connection which allows us to perceive the whole great world, inclusive of mankind, as One Being. In the sayings: ‘Matter is woven light,’ and ‘the soul is in some way or other diluted love,’ are to be found the keys of innumerable secrets of earth existence. Thus we have shown nothing less than that we, if in any way we alter the direction of karma, unite ourselves in one or the other case with the elements composing our earth existence: on the one side with light which has become matter — and on the other side with love which has become soul. We either draw the remedies out of our surroundings, out of the condensed light, or out of our own soul by the healing loving act, the sacrificial act, and we then heal with the soul-forces obtained from love. We unite ourselves with what is most deeply justified upon the earth, when, on the one hand, we unite ourselves with light and on the other with love. All earth conditions are in some way conditions of balance between light and love and everything unhealthy is a disturbance of that balance. If the disturbance is in love, we can then help by unfolding the forces of love; and if the disturbance is in light, we can then help by somehow providing for ourselves, out of the universe, that light which is able to dissolve the darkness within us.

Image result for uniting opposites painting

These are the fundamental ways of help, and we see again how everything depends upon the balance of opposites. Light and love are polar opposites and on their being interwoven depend ultimately all the psychic and material processes of our life.

In this connection I should like to note that just in such times as our own, a characteristic in many people is that they completely forget, and pay no attention to, that which one may call ‘the consciousness of a super-sensible world.’ They pay no attention whatever to the fact that there is a spiritual world, and they therefore turn away their thoughts from it. In such an age — or in all such ages — there is always in certain respects a counterpart to be found. I should like to show you this in a very simple manner.

When there are people upon the physical plane who are so absorbed in the physical that they completely forget the spiritual, then a contrary tendency appears among those souls who are living in the spiritual world between death and a new birth — a tendency which works over from the physical into the spiritual plane — impelling them to occupy themselves with the influences which act out of the spiritual world into the physical. It is this which brings about in the physical world the intervention by souls who are still in that state before birth. These souls work down into the physical world according to the means which offer and they are able to work indirectly through persons who are more sensitive to such influence from the spiritual world.

The dead are anxious show in a palpable manner that there is indeed a spiritual world.

This is intended to illustrate how in the world and in world affairs we see continual disturbances of the balance, and then again the efforts for the restoring of the balance.

This continual disturbance and restoration of the balance between the two elements of light and love is fundamental for us; and in human karma, from incarnation to incarnation, both work to restore the disturbed condition. Karma, working its serpentine way through incarnations is just such a disturbed balance, until man, after all his incarnations, shall at last create the final balance which can be reached upon earth. Having fulfilled his mission on earth, he evolves then into a new planetary form.

Image result for talking with the spirits painting — Hima af Klint

I have not shrunk from touching to-day upon those mysteries for which our modern science will not for a long time be ripe: Matter is in reality woven light, and that which belongs to the soul is in some way or other refined love. These are ancient occult sayings, but they are sayings which will for all time remain true and will prove fruitful for human evolution, not only for knowledge, but also for human work and action. ~ Manifestations of Karma, LECTURE 10, FREE WILL AND KARMA IN THE FUTURE OF HUMAN EVOLUTION by Rudolf Steiner

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Image result for love & light painting — Petey Bond

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~Even now in the long pause of possibility
Rumbling beneath its shell
There rises a wild honking
That awakens the calling of Light
& the will to Love
~hag

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Friday the 13^th

What is at the root of “triskadekaphobia” (the fear of the number 13)?

Well it could be because all numbers have their own cosmic vibration, & “13” is considered an unstable number. From the time when humans first used numbers to measure things, the number 12 has represented a common cosmic standard. There are 12 months of the year, 12 hours on the clock, 12 signs of the Zodiac, 12 Tribes of Israel, 12 Apostles, 12 Knights of the Round Table & so on. The number 13 represents disruption to the established order.

The modern basis for the aura that surrounds Friday the 13th stems from Friday October the 13th, 1307. On this date, the Pope of the church in Rome, in Conjunction with the King of France, carried out a secret death warrant against “the Knights Templar”. The Templars were terminated as heretics, never again to hold the power & riches that they had stewarded for so long. Their Grand Master, Jacques DeMolay, was arrested & killed on that Friday the 13^th.

But In pre-Christian societies, reliance on a lunar calendar meant that Friday the 13th would coincide with the Full Moon or New Moon. It was a day to honor the goddesses & planet Venus in a day-long love-fest! Friday the 13th symbolized a day for everyone to let go, party, & sacrifice routine. Such breaks in the usual order allowed for the restoration of balance & harmony.

The Scandinavian belief that the number 13 signified bad luck sprang from their mythological 12 demigods, who were joined by a 13th demigod, Loki, a cruel trickster who brought upon humans great misfortune.

The number 13, in the Christian faith, is the number of people at the Last Supper, with the 13th guest at the table being the traitor, Judas.

Whether or not a person considers Friday the 13th as unlucky, belief in superstitions offers a sense of control in stressful situations. Today’s beliefs may very well be tomorrows superstitions.

Take a cue from our forebears. They saw the number 13 as a lucky omen, a time to make a fresh beginning, seeking new roads to success & satisfaction, as we open our heart & mind to new opportunities, luck & love!But just to be safe, don’t step on a crack!

~hag

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KNOW THYSELF – Karma and Anthroposophic Psychology

Postponed until Autumn

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Sacred Gateway: Conscious Living, Conscious Dying, and the Journey Beyond

THIS EVENT WILL NOW BE HELD ONLINE APRIL 17-19. STAY TUNED FOR NEW REGISTRATION INFORMATION!

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~Vitae Sophia~A Whitsun Festival of United Soul Endeavor with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

Saturday, 30 May, 9:30 am – 12:30 pm Groh Farm, 135 Temple Rd, Wilton, NH

Eurythmy: AUM = A – I stand for myself, U- I stand for humanity, M – I stand for Life

Social Sculpture: Steiner’s ‘Blue Dot Exercise’– Through Art, the bridge between science & spirit, we warm the ‘I’, to open the heart, in support of healthy community.

What are my gifts-What are my tools? How can I place them in right relationship within the social realm? How can I hone them to strengthen and enhance the world?

Enter the Labyrinth of ‘Vitae Sophia’ – Human hearts, once warmed, can rise up to meet the source of wisdom, like flowers turning toward the sun.

$30 suggested donation at the door, with potluck lunch to follow
(please bring a dish to share) RSVP deb@anthroposophy.org Sponsored by the Anthroposophical Society in New Hampshire

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“Beware the man of one book”

March 7, 2020Celestial Event, Central Regional Council, Chicago Event, Festival, History, Poetry, Quote, Remembering, Rudolf Steiner Quote~hag

7 March 2020 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Regulus shines below the nearly full Moon after dark. As the gibbous Moon waxes toward full on the 9th, it crosses Leo.

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“How is it they live in such harmony, the billions of stars, when most men can barely go a minute without declaring war in their minds?” ~Thomas Aquinas

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

161 – Deathday of Emperor Antoninus Pius, who is succeeded by his adoptive son Marcus Aurelius

321 – Emperor Constantine I decrees that the dies Solis Invicti (sun-day) is the day of rest in the Empire

1274 – Deathday of Thomas Aquinas, a Dominican Friar & Theologian, “The prince of Scholastics”. Nickname in school=The ‘dumb ox’. Also known as the ‘Angelic Doctor’. “It must be realized that Thomas Aquinas, in the 13th Century, attained the concepts and ideas he elaborated in his writings in a completely different way from the way ideas are acquired today. One must think of his books as being inspired by a spirit from the Hierarchy of the Angeloi and that he recorded what came from a higher consciousness” ~Rudolf Steiner, The Karma of Materialism

Aquinas, who is most renowned for his Five Ways of Proving the Existence of God, believed that both faith and reason discover truth, a conflict between them being impossible since they both originate in God.

Believing that reason can, in principle, lead the mind to God, Aquinas defended reason’s legitimacy, especially in the works of Aristotle. The philosophy of Aquinas continues to offer insights into many lingering problems in Metaphysics, the Philosophy of Mind, & the Philosophy of Religion & Ethics.

In Rudolf Steiner’s historic sketch of the life of thought in the Middle Ages, he shows how Albertus Magnus ( an earlier incarnation of Marie Steiner) & Thomas Aquinas ( an earlier incarnation of Aristotle & Rudolf Steiner himself) & the Scholastics of the 12th century gave an impetus towards what in the twentieth century has come to be known as Spiritual Science, or Anthroposophy.

“The Middle Ages would not have produced what is called Scholasticism — the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas and Albertus Magnus and the other Scholastics — if this philosophy, this world conception, with all its social consequences, had not been inspired by the most important thought of the Church, by the Easter thought. In the vision of the descending Christ, Who lives for a time in man on Earth and then goes through the Resurrection, that soul impulse was given which led to the particular relation between faith and science, between knowledge and revelation which was agreed upon by the Scholastics. That out of man himself, only knowledge of the sensible world can be acquired, whereas everything connected with the super-sensible world has to be gained through revelation — this was determined basically by the way the Easter thought followed upon the Christmas thought.” ~Rudolf Steiner, The Cycle of the Year as Breathing-Process of the Earth

“Thomas Aquinas made himself thoroughly familiar with the world conception of Aristotle, who becomes, as it were, his master in the life of thought…For centuries, he is il maestro di color che sanno, the master of those who know, as Dante expresses the veneration for Aristotle in the Middle Ages.”

“Thomas Aquinas had intended on the one hand to investigate the world through physical research and intellectual knowledge but, on the other hand, that he had wanted to supplement this intellectual knowledge with the truths of revelation. But he had done that precisely to gain access to the unifying principle of the world.” ~Rudolf Steiner, Dornach, 12 June 1923

“Of the great Dominicans, St. Thomas Aquinas is especially noteworthy because in him the influence of the astral body of Christ was manifest to a high degree.”

“St. Francis of Assisi and Thomas Aquinas had copies of the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth woven into their souls, and it is this fact that allowed them to be such dynamic teachers. They worked from a sphere in which Christ had once lived.

In some cases external events such as natural catastrophes or similar things enhance this weaving of spiritual bodies into the soul of the recipient. It is said of St. Thomas Aquinas that lightning struck and killed his little sister in the room where he happened to be standing, but spared him. He interpreted this lightning bolt next to him to the effect that elemental forces were necessary to help him take up the copy of the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth. Elisabeth of Thüringen also had an imprint of the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth in her soul”. ~ Rudolf Steiner, The Principle of Spiritual Economy, Rome, March 28, 1909

During the Feast of Saint Nicolas in 1273, Saint Thomas Aquinas had a mystical vision that made writing seem unimportant to him. At mass, he reportedly heard a voice coming from a crucifix that said, “Thou hast written well of me, Thomas; what reward wilt thou have?” to which Saint Thomas Aquinas replied, “None other than thyself, Lord.”

When Saint Thomas Aquinas’s confessor, Father Reginald of Piperno (an earlier incarnation of Ita Wegman) urged him to keep writing, he replied, “I can do no more. Such secrets have been revealed to me that all I have written now appears to be like straw” Thomas Aquinas never wrote again.

1792 – Birthday of English astronomer Sir John Frederick William Herschel. In 1864, he published the General Catalogue of Nebulae & Clusters, which astronomers still use today

1876 – Alexander Graham Bell is granted a patent for an invention he calls the “telephone

1913 – The Berlin chapter of the Theosophical Society, of which Rudolf Steiner was president & Marie von Sivers secretary, is officially annulled.

1965 – Bloody Sunday: A group of 600 civil rights marchers is brutally attacked by state and local police in Selma, Alabama

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Image result for worm moon paiting — Susan Breakwood

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~Taking the low road
I climb the highest hill
Where the wind whips me
Awake I await the radiation
A flare that tears & makes bright
The night, a bed for the worm moon…
~hag

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‘The term “Anthroposophy” should really be understood as synonymous with “Sophia,” meaning the content of consciousness, the soul attitude and experience that make a man a full-fledged human being. The right interpretation of “Anthroposophy” is not “the wisdom of man,” but rather “the consciousness of one’s humanity.” In other words, the reversing of the will, the experiencing of knowledge, and one’s participation in the time’s destiny, should all aim at giving the soul a certain direction of consciousness, a “Sophia.” ~Rudolf Steiner GA127

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KNOW THYSELF – Karma and Anthroposophic Psychology — an Easter-Tide Retreat 9 -12 April 2020,

Registration is now open for the Easter-Tide Retreat: “Karma and Anthroposophic Psychology” presented by the Central Regional Council and the Association for Anthroposophic Psychology

Maundy Thursday 9 April 2020 Noon through Easter Sunday at 3 pm
Rudolf Steiner Branch 4249 N. Lincoln Ave. Chicago, IL

AAP:James A. Dyson, M.D., Roberta Nelson, Ph.D., and David Tresemer, Ph.D. with Susan Overhauser, Ph.D.

CRC:Marianne Fieber, Alberto Loya, Hazel Archer-Ginsberg, David Howerton, Lisa Dalton

Eurythmist: Mary Ruud

Activities:

Art-Acts
Star Wisdom
The Karma Exercises
Experiential PAGEANT on Holy Saturday: ‘Sophia-Christos- ‘Know Thyself’
Easter Sunrise Songtrail
Optional service at the Christian Community
Communal meals and time for Conversation

Lectures:

‘Living into Karma through the Senses’
‘How to find the Self in a Sea of Karma’
‘Unfolding the Enigma of the Saturn Path’
‘The Gesture of Karma’
‘Christ as Lord of Karma — how do I access this in terms of my personal psychology?’

Conference Fees (includes 1 meal per day & art supplies):

$190 Supporter Level
$140 Standard Rate
$60 Youth Rate (Age 35 and under)

Limited scholarships available. Click here to apply.

You are welcome to join us for individual lectures or activites $20 or $50 per day

Click here for program information and to register

We are looking for folks in Chicago who can offer Home Stays. Please contact Alberto Loya aloyavaca@peoplepc.com

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Sacred Gateway: Conscious Living, Conscious Dying, and the Journey Beyond April 16-19, 2020 in Detroit, MI.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER!

Bring a new consciousness to your own life and death
Support those who are crossing and who have crossed over
Expand your practice and knowledge of working with the dying

Through interactive workshops, triad sharing, keynote discussions with Rev. Patrick Kennedy, Sandra LaGrega and Jennifer Fox, Hazel Archer-Ginsberg, Dr. Melinda Toney, and more, as well as experiential and artistic activities, we will consciously explore the spiritual and practical aspect of human life and death.

Conference Fees:

$280 Supporter Level
$195 Standard ASA Member Rate
$215 Non-Member Rate
$60 Youth Rate (Age 35 and under)

Pre-conference Activities:

Thursday, April 16

2 pm Tour of Brightmoor Maker’s Space

4 pm Screening of short film The Art of Natural Death Care Detroit Waldorf School Auditorium- By Donation

7pm Screening of a Will For The Woods Detroit Waldorf School Auditorium- Open to the public! $10 Suggested Donation

Friday, April 17

10:00-1:00p Registration Opens
10:00-12:00p Choose from two pre-conference activities at the Detroit Waldorf School

Exploring the Beauty of home funerals and green burial: Photo essay and Q&A with Merilynne Rush, MS, End-of-Life Doula Trainer and Home Funeral Guide (Open to the public. Donation accepted at the door)
The Story of Detroit: A Walking Songtrail (Meet in the school playground. Approx. two mile walk)

12:00p Bag Lunch (For Purchase)
1:00p Conference Opening
1:45-3:00p Keynote Discussion with Rev. Patrick Kennedy: Befriending Death
3:00-3:30p Break
3:30-5:00p Festivals for the Dead, the Unborn, and the evolution of Earth – Then and Now. with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg.- – Explore the ancient origins of the many cultural expressions that work with, celebrate, & honor our beloved dead. Prepare the way for the Unborn, and for the future of humanity. Become inspired to Renew or Create your own Tradition. Through Spiritual Science learn to find your destiny, and meet your karma. Prepare for your own conscious crossing into the journey between death and rebirth, by asking questions like: Who have I been? Who am I now? Where am I going…? Who do I want to become?

ALL WORKSHOPS CHOSEN ON SITE
Fuller descriptions coming soon!

From Loss to Connection Through the Arts: Reading, Writing and Drawing with Marianne Dietzel and Maureen Flannery
Together we will invite our loved ones across the threshold to join us in experiencing practices thet connect and heal. We will read to the dead, write prose and poetry, and draw from gestures of nature.
BIOGRAPHY: GIFTS OF REVIEWING LIFE AND CONNECTING TO LIFE AFTER DEATH Sandra LaGrega and Jennifer Fox
A HOME DEATH CARE STORY: CONSCIOUS DYING AND THE HOME VIGIL~BASED ON DYING OF WAYNE TONEY Dr. Melinda Toney, Carole Schoaf, and Katherine Blackburn
MULTI-CULTURAL APPROACHES: ANCIENT AND MODERN/ SACRED AND ESOTERIC: FESTIVALS FOR THE DEAD. THEN AND NOW. RENEW OR CREATE YOUR OWN TRADITION Hazel Archer-Ginsberg, Julia Torres and Guests

5:30-6:30 Choose: Eurythmy (Movement), Singing, or Poetry
6:30 Evening Appetizer Reception (Included in registration fee)
7:30-9:00 Evening Performance

Saturday April 18 – All workshops chosen on site/Saturday Lunch and Dinner for purchase

8:00 Coffee/Tea/Breakfast Snacks (Included in Regisration Fee)
8:30-9:15 Choose: Eurythmy (Movement), Singing, or Poetry
9:30-11:00 Three-Day Themed Workshops
11:00-11:30 Break
11:30-12:30 Vigil Room Experience
12:30 – 2:00 Lunch and Table Conversations

2:15 – 3:45 Topic Workshops
Workshop Choices Coming Soon!

3:45-4:15 Break

4:15-5:45 Story Space: Death & Healing

5:45-7:00 Dinner With Your Dinner Table Groups

7:30-9:00 Evening Performance with Sarah Putnam: Little Gidding by TS Elliot followed by Memento Mori Ritual

Sunday, April 19 – All workshops chosen on site

8:00 Coffee/Tea/Breakfast Snacks (Included in Registration Fee)

8:30-9:15 Choose: Eurythmy (Movement), Singing, or Poetry

9:30 – 11:00 Three Day Themed Workshops

11:30-1:00 Green Burial Ceremony and Closing

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~Vitae Sophia~A Whitsun Festival of United Soul Endeavor with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

Saturday, 30 May, 9:30 am – 12:30 pm Groh Farm, 135 Temple Rd, Wilton, NH

Eurythmy: AUM = A – I stand for myself, U- I stand for humanity, M – I stand for Life

Social Sculpture: Steiner’s ‘Blue Dot Exercise’– Through Art, the bridge between science & spirit, we warm the ‘I’, to open the heart, in support of healthy community.

What are my gifts-What are my tools? How can I place them in right relationship within the social realm? How can I hone them to strengthen and enhance the world?

Enter the Labyrinth of ‘Vitae Sophia’ – Human hearts, once warmed, can rise up to meet the source of wisdom, like flowers turning toward the sun.

$30 suggested donation at the door, with potluck lunch to follow
(please bring a dish to share) RSVP deb@anthroposophy.org Sponsored by the Anthroposophical Society in New Hampshire

Hazel Archer-Ginsberg – Founder of Reverse Ritual Understanding Anthroposophy through the Rhythms of the Year. Essayist, Lecturer, Poet, Trans-denominational Minister, ‘Anthroposopher’, working as the Festivals Coordinator of the Chicago Rudolf Steiner Branch, The Traveling Speakers Program, & the Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society.

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Winds of Change

February 24, 2020Celestial Event, Chicago Event, Festival, History, Insight, Poetry, Quote, Speaking with the Stars~hag

Today’s thoughts: Ode to the West Wind

Percy Bysshe Shelley praises the wind for the role it plays in the cycle of life, death & rebirth, & implores it to scatter his poetry over the earth in order to aid humankind. Shelley uses stark imagery to portray vivid scenes of the natural world, & demonstrate the wind’s unrivaled power to both destroy & preserve. Though the ode has a plangent, slightly ominous tone, Shelley ends the poem with the promise of spring.

The first stanza opens with an incantation. Shelley proceeds to paint a scene of fall leaves & dried seeds being blown by the wind, made wonderfully eerie by a palette of colors: “yellow, black and pale, hectic red.” In this stanza, death is referenced multiple times; Shelley refers to the leaves as fleeing dead ghosts, before describing the seeds as corpses inside their grave. The first stanza, like the next two, ends with Shelley calling for the wind to hear him. In the second stanza, the wind is depicted whipping up a mighty storm, likened to a “dirge of the dying year”, furthering Shelley’s reference to death. Curiously intriguing is Shelley’s references to both Christianity & Greek mythology throughout this stanza; the storm clouds are described as being, “shook from the tangled bough of Heaven, Angels of rain and lightning”, & the ending line of the stanza, “Black rain, and fire, and hail will burst!” likens the approaching storm to doomsday. Yet Shelley also uses an image of a Maenad’s hair to describe the lightning. In the third stanza, Shelley writes of the Mediterranean being awoken from its blissful summer sleep by the west wind. The first half of the stanza is filled with images of the calm blue ocean & the azure moss, the sweet flowers & the sea blooms. However, this is then contrasted by the ocean’s power, which causes the serene foliage to grow “gray with fear”.

Stanzas four & five introduce the speaker’s motives for the first time. Shelley longs that he might feel the wind’s power in the way that the clouds, waves & leaves do. Conforming to the standard of the Romantic period, Shelley also references his childhood & loss of innocence by lamenting that the passing of time has hindered his ability to feel as “tameless, swift, and proud” as the wind. The last stanza implements another common Romantic symbol: the lyre. Shelley implores that the west wind take control of him in order to, “drive his dead thoughts over the universe” in order to fertilize the birth of new ideas, as dead leaves fertilize the new growth of plants. Shelley goes on to compare himself to a slowly dying hearth whose ashes & sparks are scattered among mankind. It is fitting that, after illustrating the power of the earth, the water, & the mighty west wind, Shelley ends the poem with a vivid image of fire. After all, though fire can be seen as the epitome of destruction, fire ultimately represents rebirth, like the flame of the phoenix, & a clean slate, like fertile, soot-blackened soil. Out of Shelley’s fiery metaphor comes his hopeful question, “If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?”

Ode to the West Wind
BY PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY
I
O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn’s being,
Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead
Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing,

Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red,
Pestilence-stricken multitudes: O thou,
Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed

The winged seeds, where they lie cold and low,
Each like a corpse within its grave, until
Thine azure sister of the Spring shall blow

Her clarion o’er the dreaming earth, and fill
(Driving sweet buds like flocks to feed in air)
With living hues and odours plain and hill:

Wild Spirit, which art moving everywhere;
Destroyer and preserver; hear, oh hear!

II
Thou on whose stream, mid the steep sky’s commotion,
Loose clouds like earth’s decaying leaves are shed,
Shook from the tangled boughs of Heaven and Ocean,

Angels of rain and lightning: there are spread
On the blue surface of thine aëry surge,
Like the bright hair uplifted from the head

Of some fierce Maenad, even from the dim verge
Of the horizon to the zenith’s height,
The locks of the approaching storm. Thou dirge

Of the dying year, to which this closing night
Will be the dome of a vast sepulchre,
Vaulted with all thy congregated might

Of vapours, from whose solid atmosphere
Black rain, and fire, and hail will burst: oh hear!

III
Thou who didst waken from his summer dreams
The blue Mediterranean, where he lay,
Lull’d by the coil of his crystalline streams,

Beside a pumice isle in Baiae’s bay,
And saw in sleep old palaces and towers
Quivering within the wave’s intenser day,

All overgrown with azure moss and flowers
So sweet, the sense faints picturing them! Thou
For whose path the Atlantic’s level powers

Cleave themselves into chasms, while far below
The sea-blooms and the oozy woods which wear
The sapless foliage of the ocean, know

Thy voice, and suddenly grow gray with fear,
And tremble and despoil themselves: oh hear!

IV
If I were a dead leaf thou mightest bear;
If I were a swift cloud to fly with thee;
A wave to pant beneath thy power, and share

The impulse of thy strength, only less free
Than thou, O uncontrollable! If even
I were as in my boyhood, and could be

The comrade of thy wanderings over Heaven,
As then, when to outstrip thy skiey speed
Scarce seem’d a vision; I would ne’er have striven

As thus with thee in prayer in my sore need.
Oh, lift me as a wave, a leaf, a cloud!
I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed!

A heavy weight of hours has chain’d and bow’d
One too like thee: tameless, and swift, and proud.

V
Make me thy lyre, even as the forest is:
What if my leaves are falling like its own!
The tumult of thy mighty harmonies

Will take from both a deep, autumnal tone,
Sweet though in sadness. Be thou, Spirit fierce,
My spirit! Be thou me, impetuous one!

Drive my dead thoughts over the universe
Like wither’d leaves to quicken a new birth!
And, by the incantation of this verse,

Scatter, as from an unextinguish’d hearth
Ashes and sparks, my words among mankind!
Be through my lips to unawaken’d earth

The trumpet of a prophecy! O Wind,
If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?

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24 February 2020 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Under the feet of Orion, & to the right of Sirius in early evening now, hides Lepus the Hare. Like Canis Major, this is a constellation with a connect-the-dots that really looks like what it’s supposed to be – a crouching bunny, with his nose pointing lower right, his faint ears extending up toward Rigel (Orion’s western foot), & his body bunched to the left. His brightest 2 stars, Beta & Alpha Leporis, form the front & back of his neck.

Image result for sunrise painting — Helen Turner

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Feast Day of St. Matthias, who, according to the book of Acts, was chosen by the apostles to replace Judas Iscariot following his betrayal & his subsequent death. This calling is unique, since his appointment was not made personally by Jesus, who had already ascended into heaven, & it was also made before the descent of the Holy Spirit.

For superstitious reasons, when the Romans began to bring their calendar into line with the solar year, they chose not to place their extra month of Mercedonius after February but within it. February 24—known in the Roman calendar as “the sixth day before the Kalends of March”—was replaced by the first day of this month since it followed Terminalia, the festival of the Roman god of boundaries. After the end of Mercedonius, the rest of the days of February were observed & the New Year began with the 1^st day of March. The overlaid religious festivals of February were so complicated that Julius Caesar opted not to change it at all during his 46 bc calendar reform. The extra day of his system’s leap years were located in the same place as the old month but he opted to ignore it as a date. Instead, the sixth day before the Kalends of March was simply said to last for 48 hours & all the other days continued to bear their original names. Although February 29 has been popularly understood as the leap day of leap years since the late Middle Ages, no formal replacement of February 24 as the leap day of the Julian & Gregorian calendars has occurred. The exceptions include Sweden & Finland, who enacted legislation to move the day to February 29. This custom still has some effect around the world, for example with respect to name days in Hungary.

1582 – With the papal bull Inter gravissimas, Pope Gregory XIII announces the Gregorian calendar.

Image result for 1831 – The Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek, the first removal treaty in accordance with the Indian Removal Act, is proclaimed on the Choctaws in Mississippi.

1831 – The Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek, the first removal treaty in accordance with the Indian Removal Act, is proclaimed on the Choctaws in Mississippi.

1919 – The 1^st public performance of Eurythmy in Zurich.

1920 – The Nazi Party (NSDAP) was founded by Adolf Hitler in the Hofbräuhaus beer hall in Munich, Germany

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KNOW THYSELF – Karma and Anthroposophic Psychology — an Easter-Tide Retreat 9 -12 April 2020,

Sacred Gateway: Conscious Living, Conscious Dying, and the Journey Beyond April 16-19, 2020 in Detroit, MI.

Cognitive Ritual

~Confessions of a Modern Rosicrucian

Category Archives: Quote

Johanna von Keyserlingk: Vessel for the Etheric Christ

Thought Experiments

“Matter is woven light, the soul is cultured love”.

Sacred Gateway: Conscious Living, Conscious Dying, and the Journey Beyond

THIS EVENT WILL NOW BE HELD ONLINE APRIL 17-19. STAY TUNED FOR NEW REGISTRATION INFORMATION!

“Beware the man of one book”

KNOW THYSELF – Karma and Anthroposophic Psychology — an Easter-Tide Retreat 9 -12 April 2020,

Sacred Gateway: Conscious Living, Conscious Dying, and the Journey Beyond April 16-19, 2020 in Detroit, MI.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER!

Winds of Change

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Sacred Gateway: Conscious Living, Conscious Dying, and the Journey Beyond

THIS EVENT WILL NOW BE HELD ONLINE APRIL 17-19. STAY TUNED FOR NEW REGISTRATION INFORMATION!

Share this:

KNOW THYSELF – Karma and Anthroposophic Psychology — an Easter-Tide Retreat 9 -12 April 2020,

Sacred Gateway: Conscious Living, Conscious Dying, and the Journey Beyond April 16-19, 2020 in Detroit, MI.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER!

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