Category Archives: Quote

After-Image 1

Biography, Community, History, Insight, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Upcoming Event

~Christian Schoel

The theme of the ‘Fire of the Heart Conference’ had at its core an invitation to share the questions burning in our hearts around the ‘Movement for Religious Renewal’ – surveying this modern Christian Path thru the lens of the Arts.  

Human consciousness is ever evolving; every age presents opportunities & challenges.  In our present age, the Festival Life, as well as the Religious Ritual, exists to nourish & foster a new relationship between humanity & the beings of the spiritual worlds. (We can speak about the Cognitive/Reverse Ritual & how it enhances this at another time 😉

Advancing responsibility in freedom – is crucial in recognizing The Christ Impulse as the pivotal Turning Point for our human renewal.

Community reveals karma, opening us to a cosmic conception of Christ as Lord of Karma & as the Being of Love, who ‘goes before us,’ that we may become Anthroposophia.  

Rev. Jeana Lee did a stellar job organizing & engaging folks from the greater community to come & share their gifts. I was thrilled to be asked to lead one of the workshops carrying a ‘burning question’ to be worked with over 2 days. My main goal was to make it experiential, so I didn’t prepare any formal leading thoughts as such but brought with me my personal practice with what Rudolf Steiner calls the After-Image to delve into the question of How to tune into the Etheric Christ.

For reference I brought the Book “Learning to Experience the Etheric World, Empathy, the After-Image & a New Social Ethic” by Christian Community priests Baruch Urieli & Hans Muller-Wiedemann.

I was nervous – it was a big group with a lot of Anthro-Newbees. I was grateful to have a chalk board to work with. The imagination of the good ol’ ‘Anthroposophical Bathtub’ (which, come to think of it, is the same glyph that we see on the back of the Priests Chasable in various colors most times of the year) this image can be used to show how in earlier times the human being derived a powerful soul-spiritual element from the atmosphere, thru the air. This was particularly strong during Atlantean times. And in the 1st post Atlantean epoch of Ancient India, it could be seen in the Hindu Yogic Breath work which was the main form of initiation for that age. These forces slowly faded away.

And now, since the ‘Turning Point of Time’, it is not air – but Light that is ensouled.  This was made possible thru Christ’s uniting with the Earth.

In our time of the Consciousness Soul we are called to consciously take in Light to spiritualize our sense impressions.

At the same time that Steiner gave lectures on ‘The Reappearance of Christ in the Etheric’ he also spoke for the first time about Kasper Hauser. His sacrifice, like that of the Nathan Soul in the pre-earthly deeds of Christ, brought about the possibility for humanity to develop the capacity for pure sense perception. “The gift of empathy, the capacity to form after-images which penetrate earth existence & unveil its inner meaning, found its way to earth through the sacrificial deed of Kasper Hauser. In this way a tool has been given to humanity by means of which it can free itself from the encapsulation intended by the Dark Powers.”

But what is this thing called ‘after-image’ & how do we cultivate it?

Right away we got into the practicum. I brought out some cards with various shapes & colors. In Steiner’s day folks painted a red or blue or yellow circle on white paper. They then beheld the image for 30 seconds & then transferred their gaze to a plain sheet of white or grey paper which produced the complementary color in their vision.

Everyone in our group was amazed.

The idea of point & periphery was explored.

We spoke a bit about Goethe’s theory of Color, & the idea of ‘echoing’ which is what he called the complementary colors. Steiner’s vision tells us that ‘color is the sacrifice of Light‘; & how we can see the 3 primary colors as representing the 3-fold human being, & the 3 soul forces of thinking, feeling & willing. One color calls forth the other two.

We can go out into nature & try to experience the after-image of a rock, or a tree, which can reveal a great deal about its essence, or what it may need in terms of care. The next step is to turn to the animal kingdom – what does its movement or sound tell us in reflection?

The after-image is an experience that is given to us by our etheric body, our Time Body giving us formative forces.

Steiner gave us ‘Karma & after-image exercises’ where we are encouraged to take a detailed impression of a person into our thinking before sleep, & wait for the after-image to arise upon waking. Steiner tells us this can lead to new social capacities & moral qualities.  The Good Doctor spoke about the after-image as ‘the foundation of a Michaelic Culture’, how the sense of the “I” of the other brings us into empathy & compassion.

In Rosicrucianism & Modern Initiation, The Tasks of the Michael Age, 13 January 1924, Dornach, he showed how the path that begins with experiencing the after-image of a physical color leads to empathy, & that of the plant, animal & human being to a sense of the “I”, so that we can gain entry to the New Mysteries, which leads us to the destiny-experience of the future where we can consciously perceive The Etheric Christ.

I think I will leave it here for today – to be continued – soonly – Do you feel called to take up some of these practices…? If so, please share…Thanks

~hag

11 July 2023– “Speaking with the Stars”: The waning crescent moon will pass Jupiter, heading toward the glittering Pleiades star cluster. They’ll be rising about 4 hours before sunrise. Chart via John Jardine Goss/ EarthSky.

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day (RSarchives) 

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

The feast day of Nertha, ancient Germanic Goddess of the Earth

1767 – Birthday of John Quincy Adams, 6th President of the United States. He began his diplomatic career as the U.S. minister to the Netherlands in 1794, and served as minister to Prussia during the presidential administration of his father, the formidable patriot John Adams. After serving in the Massachusetts State Senate and the U.S. Senate, the younger Adams rejoined diplomatic service under President James Madison, helping to negotiate the Treaty of Ghent (1814), which ended the War of 1812. As secretary of state under James Monroe, Adams played a key role in determining the president’s foreign policy, including the famous Monroe Doctrine. John Quincy Adams went on to win the presidency in a highly contentious election in 1824, and served only one term. Outspoken in his opposition to slavery and in support of freedom of speech, Adams was elected to the House of Representatives in 1830; he would serve until his death in 1848. ~history.com

1864 – Birthday of Peter Deunov, Bulgarian spiritual master and teacher of esoteric Christianity in the early 20th century, is also known for his inspired musical compositions and as the inventor of the Paneurhythmy, a sacred dance of the Universal White Brotherhood. Beinsa Duono is his Bulgarian spiritual name.

I will be heading out for our next training 1-7 August 2023

Here is a newsletter with an article I wrote about my expereince working with Steiner’s Inner Realities of Evoultion

Love American Style

Biography, Community, Festival, History, Poetry, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Upcoming Events

~Mine is
A heart of ruby-red –
A Crimson hot
dark as murder on a Holy Day
pulsing sense organ.
Mine is a fist of emerald & gold –
the gnarled roots
of a rosewood bursting
with thorns
& bright blossoms
in the Sun…
~hag

Image result for america the beautiful

THE “AMERICAN” or “THREEFOLD” VERSE by Rudolf Steiner given to Ralph Courtney, a pioneer of Anthroposophy in North America for the Threefold Group in New York City, which later established the Threefold Community in Spring Valley (now Chestnut Ridge). This verse for the American spirit speaks of the inner unity of human beings and of support from the spiritual world for our efforts. We spoke it for many years when I was in the Central Regional Council & It is the go-to verse for AAP.

“May our feeling penetrate to the center of our hearts –
And seek, in love, to unite with those who share our goals,
And with the spirits who look down benevolently
On our hearts earnest strivings.
Sending us strength from realms of light,
As they illuminate our love.”

Listen to “I think Speech’

Greetings Friends – May a Global Interdependent Independence reverberate in our collective consciousness – as we work towards a mutual dependency upon the independence of every nation & its people – not imposed by the corporate elite, but out of the inner Freedom & love of the human being for humanity – Imagine everyone celebrating our differences with great admiration & respect…

Let’s remember the meaning of ‘Independence Day’ celebrated on the ‘4th of July’ – It’s about freedom from oppression… ‘No taxation without representation’…& all that…the center point being the Declaration of Independence.

When was the last time you read this important document of our countries origin? You can print it off the net. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all people are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are, Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness…”

Have we gained independence from one tyranny all those years ago, only to allow it to happen again on a world scale? Maybe it’s time to open our eyes & read the fine print of our birthright – Reclaim our rights & go forward as a united community of World people, in peaceful justice, in equity, in reason – with compassion, having come through so much pain – to really start to, not just declare our independence, but to really live it – As individuals, as well as with the united community of the whole planet…

It’s interesting to look at what Spiritual Science has to say about America.

In ‘The Mystery of the Double: Geographic Medicine’, Rudolf Steiner tells us that when we are born we not only acquire a physical body we become permeated by an Ahrimanic double a being with ‘a Mephistophelian intelligence’, & ‘a very strong will’. Thru them we carry electrical streams in us.

‘These beings of purely Mephistophelian intelligence, want to conquer the earth, and to do this they need bodies; they do not have bodies of their own’. But they are afraid of death & have to leave us when we die.

‘Had the Mystery of Golgotha not occurred, conditions on earth would have been such that these beings would long ago have attained the possibility of remaining within the human being when he is karmically predestined for death. Then they would have completely triumphed over human evolution on earth, they would have become masters of human evolution on earth.’

This has long been known to certain occult brotherhoods. They withheld this from humanity. ‘These egotistically minded occult brotherhoods make it a power issue, intending thereby to enhance their own power.’

But the human being must learn about the double within ‘if the human race is not to experience endless hindrances, really endless horrors’.

‘This double is the creator of all physical illnesses that emerge spontaneously from within the human being; coming not through outer injuries, and not from the human soul; they come from this being. He is the creator of all organic illnesses.’

And Lucifer, Ahriman’s brother, ‘is the creator of all neurasthenic and neurotic illnesses’.

Thus medicine must become spiritual in two directions’…

The Earth as a living organism streams out ‘different forces, among them magnetism and electricity’, as well as life-giving forces.  ‘All these forces come up out of the earth and influence people in the most varied ways at different points on the earth. They influence the human being in various ways according to the geographical formation. This is a very important fact – The double uses these forces that stream up out of the earth.’

‘Some of these beings are especially pleased with the Eastern hemisphere: Europe, Asia, Africa. They choose to make use of the bodies of human beings born there. Others choose bodies born in the Western hemisphere, in America.’

So…’one of the most important tasks of the future will be to foster again something that has been interrupted: geographic medicine, medical geography…the connection of the illness-producing being in man with earthly geography, with all the fusions, with all the outward radiations that emerge from the earth in the various regions. It is very important for the human being to become acquainted with these things, for his life depends on it.’

‘For this reason spiritual science must now spread, the present time calls upon the human being to reach an understanding of these things in a conscious way in order to find a relationship to these things. The human being must become strong in this epoch in order to adapt his existence to these beings’.

But before the 5th post Atlantean epoch the human being had to be protected from encountering the Ahrimanic double which is especially strong in America.

‘A really significant arrangement was required: Beginning in the ninth century and especially from the twelfth century on, the entire shipping exchange with America with the kind of ships there were at that time, was abolished’. This may sound very strange to you. You will say, “We have never heard anything like this in history.”

In many respects, history is just a fable convenue a legend; for in earlier centuries of European development, ships continually sailed from the Norway of that time to America.

Of course it was not called America it had a different name at that time. America was known to be the region where the magnetic forces particularly arose that brought the human being into relation with this double. For the clearest relations to the double proceed from that region of the earth that comprises the American continent. And in the earlier centuries people sailed over to America in Norwegian ships and studied illnesses there. The illnesses in America brought about under the influence of earthly magnetism were studied by Europe.

Then it was necessary for the connection with America to be gradually forgotten, and this was essentially brought about by the Roman Catholic Church through its edicts.

And only after the beginning of the fifth post-Atlantean epoch was America ‘rediscovered’ in a physical, sense-perceptible way.

Europe had to be protected for a long time from all these influences; and it could not have been protected if the European world had not been completely shut off from America in the centuries before the fifteenth century..”

And so dear friends how does this picture add to the history of our Country?

Something to contemplate on this anniversary to re-member our ‘Independence’.

~hag

4th of July 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”

1054 – A supernova, is seen by Chinese Song dynasty, Arab, & Amerindian observers near the star Zeta Tauri. For several months it remains bright enough to be seen during the day. Its remnants form the Crab Nebula

1744 – The Iroquois are forced to cede lands between the Allegheny Mountains & the Ohio River to the British colonies

1776 – American Revolution: The United States Declaration of Independence is adopted by the Second Continental Congress

Connie Landro

1826 – Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States, dies the same day as John Adams, second president of the United States, on the fiftieth anniversary of the adoption of the United States Declaration of Independence.

1827 – Slavery is abolished in New York State

Library of Congress

1855 – In Brooklyn, New York City, the first edition of Walt Whitman‘s book of poems, Leaves of Grass, is published

1862 – Lewis Carroll tells Alice Liddell a story that would grow into Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

1863 – American Civil War: Siege of Vicksburg: Confederate Army surrenders to Ulysses S. Grant after 47 days of siege

1863 – American Civil War: The Army of Northern Virginia withdraws from the battlefield after losing the Battle of Gettysburg, signaling an end to the Southern invasion of the North

1886 – The people of France offer the Statue of Liberty to the people of the United States

1914 – The funeral of Archduke Franz Ferdinand & his wife Sophie takes place in Vienna, six days after their assassinations in Sarajevo

1918 – Bolsheviks kill Tsar Nicholas II of Russia & his family

1934 – Leo Szilard patents the chain-reaction design for the atomic bomb

1934 – Deathday of Marie Curie, French-Polish physicist & chemist, Nobel Prize laureate

1941 – Nazi troops massacre Polish scientists & writers in the captured Ukrainian city of Lviv

1941 – World War II: The Burning of the Riga synagogues with 300 Jews locked in the basement

1943 – World War II: The Battle of Kursk, the largest full-scale battle in history & the world’s largest tank battle, begins in Prokhorovka village

1950 – Radio Free Europe first broadcasts

1966 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Freedom of Information Act

This speaks to the best of America: FREEDOM by Jon Batiste

My Summer Conference schedule:

I will be heading out for our next training 1-7 August 2023

Here is a newsletter with an article I wrote about my expereince working with Steiner’s Inner Realities of Evoultion

Harvesting the Sun

Biography, Celestial Event, Festival, History, Rudolf Steiner Quote

This is traditionally the time when the herb St. John’ wort reaches its full potency & since it is a solar herb, it is used as a plant medicine to bring the power of the Sun to people who suffer from depression.

The wise women of old would place St. John’s Wort & other healing herbs around the home for protection as they dried;  They threw the stalks into the Midsummer bonfires, & when the coals had cooled down the ashes were mixed with water & sprinkled on the fields, the 4 corners of the home & the on the head & feet of the children.

Our herbs this year are stellar. I have already harvested tons of basil & sage, catmint & lemon grass, parsley & oregano…

Royal fern seeds gathered at Full Moon are said to make you invisible. Rub the blossoms on your eyelids to see the wee-folk, which will also make you wealthy & wise; but be sure & carry a bit of rue in your pocket or you might be ‘Pixie-led’. Can’t find the rue, then turn your clothes inside out & follow the old ‘Ley-Lines’, which will keep you from getting lost in faeiry land.

The ancient Druids celebrated the Summer-Tide as the Wedding of Heaven & Earth. The Goddess manifests as Mother Earth & the God, as the Sun King.

Can you feel this marriage within your own human/Divine nature?

belden bloxsy

Plant Spirits, Faeiry Folk, thank you for sharing your gifts – Continue to teach us how to live in harmony with the essence of your healing magic.

~hag

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

28 June 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”

Feast of Saint Vitus, a Christian saint from Sicily. He died as a martyr during the persecution of Christians by co-ruling Roman Emperors Diocletian & Maximian in 303. Vitus is counted as one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers of medieval Roman Catholicism. Saint Vitus’ Day is celebrated on 28 June on the Gregorian Calendar.

In the late Middle Ages, people in Germany & countries such as Latvia celebrated the feast of Vitus by dancing before his statue. This dancing became popular & the name “Saint Vitus Dance” was given to the neurological disorder Sydenham’s chorea. It also led to Vitus being considered the patron saint of dancers & of actors, comedians, dancers, of entertainers in general a& epileptics. He is also said to protect against lightning strikes, animal attacks & oversleeping.

Jean Jacques Rousseau ~Allan Ramsay

1712 – Birthday of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Swiss philosopher & polymath

1831 – Birthday of Joseph Joachim, Austrian violinist, composer, & conductor; friend of Herman Grimm.

1914 – Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria & his wife Sophie are assassinated in Sarajevo; this is the casus belli of World War I.

“…May I remind you — I have often mentioned it — that the death of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria is one of those concealed events of the present day, despite all that occurred on the external physical plane. I have stressed especially that if the physical and spiritual worlds are taken together, then for them as a totality there was something present before the assassination of Franz Ferdinand that became different after that event. It does not matter in such cases what things look like in external maya! What occurs inwardly is the important thing. As I told you: What rose up as the soul of Franz Ferdinand into the spiritual worlds became a focal point for very strong, powerful forces, and much of what is now happening is connected with the very fact that a unique transition took place between life and so-called death, so that this soul became something quite different from what other souls become…

Seen quite externally, why was Franz Ferdinand rather important? He was important because in his being, in all his inclinations — you must take the external manifestation as a symbol of what lived within — he was the external expression of certain streams. In him there lived something which, if only it had been able to free itself, bore the deepest understanding for the individual development of the Slav peoples. You might indeed call him an intense friend of all that belongs to the Slavs. He understood — or perhaps I should say: something living in him of which he was not fully aware understood — what forms would be necessary for the social life of the Slavs if they were to develop as individual peoples…

There may be men here in Europe who, look upon the outbreak of the present war as being connected with the murder of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, Heir Apparent to the Throne. I do not say that this is untrue or that there is no truth in it, but on the basis of this event they can explain certain occurrences that they trace back to this murder of July 1914.

There may also be other persons who stress that, in a Western newspaper of January 1913, the statement appeared that the Archduke Franz Ferdinand was to be murdered in the near future for the well-being of European humanity. What I mean to say is that we may go back as far as the actual murder, but we may also go back to the notice of it that appeared in a Western newspaper in January 1913.

It is also possible to go back to the murder of Jaures on the last evening before the war began — probably never entirely explained, as I recently suggested. But it is equally possible to go back to the same newspaper to which I just referred, which carried the statement in 1913 saying that if conditions in Europe should lead to war, Jaures would be the first to meet his death — You may consult a certain occult almanac that was sold for forty francs and find in the issue for 1913, which was printed, of course, in 1912, the statement that he who was expected to be the ruler in Austria would not be the ruler, but rather a younger man, whom people wouldn’t even now consider as the successor to the old Emperor Franz Josef. That was printed in a so-called occult almanac for 1913; printed, therefore, in the autumn of 1912. Moreover, in the same almanac for 1914, printed in 1913, the same remark was repeated because obviously the attempt on Emperor Franz Josef’s life had miscarried in 1913. When these things are seen more clearly, the connection will someday be discovered that exists between what actually happens externally and what is cooked up by hidden, dark sources. Many will recognize the threads that lead from public life into this or that brotherhood., and how stupid it is for other brotherhoods continually to declare that silence should be maintained regarding certain mystery truths. Such people may be as innocent as children, in spite of the fact that they may be old members of this or that brotherhood of Freemasons which lay claim to secret sources. Nevertheless, they further intensify the obscurity and darkness that is already present among human beings…” ~ Rudolf Steiner, THE KARMA OF VOCATION, GA 172, Lecture VII
19 November 1916, Dornach

1919 – The Treaty of Versailles is signed, ending the state of war between Germany & the Allies of World War I.

“…You all know that Woodrow Wilson’s “fourteen points” arrived at the dreadful chaotic point civilised life had entered. What were these fourteen points actually? They were basically nothing other than abstract principles of an unworldly man, a person who knew little about reality, who appeared in Versailles where he could actually have played an important role. This man who was a stranger to reality wanted to show the world how to get organised according to principles founded on intellectualism. One only had to experience with what inspiration civilised mankind hung on to these fourteen points, however with the exclusion of a large part of the central European population, they unfortunately also fell for these fourteen points after a short period of time…” ~Rudolf Steiner, THE IMPULSE FOR RENEWAL IN CULTURE AND SCIENCE
GA 81, lecture V. Anthroposophy and Social Science, 9 March 1922, Berlin

1950 – Korean War: Suspected sympathizers are executed in the Bodo League massacre.

1950 – Korean War: Packed with its own refugees fleeing Seoul & leaving their 5th Division stranded, South Korean forces blow up the Hangang Bridge in an attempt to slow North Korea’s offensive. The city falls later that day.

1950 –North Korean Army conducts the Seoul National University Hospital massacre. Over 900 doctors, nurses, patients & wounded soldiers, were killed. The Korean People’s Army shot or buried the people alive. The civilian victims alone numbered 1900.

1964 – Malcolm X forms the Organization of Afro-American Unity.

1969 – Stonewall riots begin in New York City, marking the start of the Gay Rights Movement.

~I am leaping forth
Ripping veils
Making naked the essential
Streaking light with sound
Tamping down the dirt
To make the circle round
& the Earth glad.
The Stars notice
When I sing
~hag

Rising with the Tide

Biography, Calendar of the Soul, Community, Quote, Summer

I greet you dear friends from deep inside the St. John’s Tide, where I am swimming with the Virtue of the Month: ‘Unselfishness Becomes Catharsis’ – which is acting like a Catalyst for the Call of Conscience – ever issuing forth from the Spirit of John the Baptizer – answering the Universal need that arises to Let the Light of the Higher “I” shine into our being.

At our Spring Biodynamic Prep-making Work-day on Zinniker Farm, Margaret took me aside & told me how much it meant to her that in 2017 I led a powerful St. John’s Festival on the farm. She said that year she was going thru a difficult time as her mother was making the transition into the spiritual world. She shared how the drumming & my leading thoughts on the Season, helped her come to a place of peace – This was a catalyst, she emphasized, that allowed her to let go of fear & worry – Which then allowed her mother to pass over peacefully. Margaret said she has been wanting to thank me for years, & asked if I might lead another Drum Circle to celebrate St. John’s Day this year..?

I often suffer from self doubt – thinking what I do doesn’t matter, isn’t wanted, or that someone else can do it better; so I was very grateful to hear that our gathering had meant so much. And I enthusiastically agreed to bring the St. John’s Festival alive again on the farm.

The Zinniker’s wanted to make it a low-key community celebration, not a workday; & Margaret wanted to bring her Christian Community friends together, & I wanted to serve the Spiritual World, the Community – the land & the Farmers. And so it was that More than 50 folks came from near & far.

Gathering around in a big circle before the sumptuous potluck meal, I looked around at the bright shining faces, & felt ‘Words of Flame’ rise-up within me, as if the Baptist was standing with us.

In my minds-eye, the circle of human beings became a Christened periphery, with the blazing bonfire – a point at the center, creating the astrological symbol of the Sun.

The flaming point seemed to move out into vertical & horizontal lines to create a Cross within the Circle – the planetary symbol for Earth – & the alchemical sign for Salt – the cube shaped mineral-crystal – outpictured in the Holy of Holies & the cubic altar of The New Jerusalem.

We had ‘Squared the Circle’ bringing in the 4 Elements.  

Acknowledging these Nature Beings fostered on the sacred land maintained by the Zinniker Family, we directed our human Reverence & Gratitude to connect & enliven the Christic impulses, Living into each Quarter.

Because the land was so dry, after giving Recognition with Thanks & Praise, to the Elements, we appealed specifically to the Undines for some rain to ease the drought. We made the intention that during the Drum Circle we would do a Rain Dance.

By establishing ‘The Great Cross of Nature’ – we experience the Seasonal Round  – We see how the Equinoxes of Spring & Autumn hold the Horizontal Axis, the balance of Resurrection & Renunciation – Easter & Michaelmas.

And coinciding with the Vertical Axis we meet the polarity of the Solstices – 3 days after the Summer Solstice is the Birthday of The Forerunner, John the Baptizer; & 3 days after the Winter Solstice brings us the fixed date of Christmas – the Birthday of the Luke Jesus.

When thinking about the Living Cycle of the Soul of the Earth, the in-breath & out-breath – now – during the Summer-Tide – we feel ourselves fully exhaled out to the periphery of the cosmos –

We are a circle, within a circle
With no beginning, and never ending

Intermingled with the grandeur of the highest Cosmic Mysteries, where the Divine forces of life exist among the Stars.

The Soul of the Earth is dreaming now in the heights, in union with the Angelic Hierarchies; & it is this dreaming which is brought back into the Earth to become assessable to our thinking during the Sacred Time of the Holy Nights.

Epiphany, the last of the Holy Nights, coincides with the Baptism of Jesus by John – the birth of Christ on Earth – the fulfillment of John the Baptizers mission.

And just as John the Baptist, the last Old Testament Prophet, had to decrease; when our ‘little ego’ decreases, we grow in Christ.

At the fullness of Summer, the light is so bright that it leaves no room for the shadow to hide. Summer is associated with High Noon – the hour of judgment – “Then you shall know the truth, & the truth will set you free.”

This can happen if we respond to the Summertime call for a ‘Metanoia’- from the Greek μετάνοια – a transformative change of heart & mind – a Spiritual Conversion, brought in thru Repentance / Atonement; a review of our Conscience; a call to ‘make straight the path’.

Then the power of our Higher “I” will increase, just as the Christ impulse is ever increasing in Earth existence.

After his sacrifice, John the Baptizer, was able to distillate his Spirit-Self to become like a guardian angel for the apostles, especially Lazarus John, his name-sake – Johannes – E – O – Ah – nes.

Following this archetypal gesture from ‘the voice of one crying in the Wilderness’ we can see that John the Baptist has become one of the main impulse givers towards a new kind of group work – guiding community life for us today.

After the delicious repast, I acted as Master of Ceremonies & sparked the space for artistic sharings out of the community. Many folks came forth with a story, song or poem. Rev. Jeana Lee brought a wonderful overview of Christianity. Velsum sang. Gregory & Alexander brought some Irish tunes on violin & cello to get the crowd dancing. A few young people including Emma & Ultra taught us some songs. And this led naturally into the Drumming & Song Circle in earnest.

The clouds rolled in as we sang “Air I am, Fire I Am, Water, Earth & Spirit I am”. The lingering twilight brought a few fireflies which receieved our serenade. Soon lightning flashes could be seen striking in the dusky clouds above. We felt ourselves rise together in ‘Ripening Glory’ –

We sang to Mark & Lucien, & Jack’s dad who recently passed away, to celebrate their St. John’s Day Birthdays.  

When it was too dark to find our shoes we closed the circle, feeling that the reverberations of our sounding added to the ‘Music of the Spheres’  – An echo that unites us to the eternity of the Trinity – Reminding us to explore our own inner harmony with the cosmos – For at Midsummer the Trinity reveals itself out of the heart of this cosmic activity.

Substance of Earth
Essence of Light
Grace of Heaven
In Us Unite

Our carload made it back to the city by 1 am; the thunder building. By 3 am our Rain Dance started to pay off – What a gift! There was no doubt. Faith is real – effecting change & cooperation between Spirit & Matter – Thought & Deed –  

Blessings as we continue to unfold this St. John’s Tide.

~hag

The wise one built their house upon the Rock,
And the rains came tumbling down.
The rains came down and the waters came up,
But the house on the Rock stood firm.

So build your life on the Being of Love,
And the blessings will come down.
The blessings come down as your prayers go up,
So build your life on Love.

26 June 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”: This evening and tomorrow evening, the waxing crescent – and 1st quarter – moon sit along the southern edge of the star pattern known as the Spring Triangle – an asterism made of the bright stars Arcturus in Boötes the Herdsman, Spica in Virgo the Maiden and Denebola or sometimes Regulus in Leo the Lion at its corners. Bella Luna and the Spring Triangle will be visible until after midnight. ~Chart via John Jardine Goss/ EarthSky.

RUDOLF STEINER’S CALENDAR OF THE SOUL
translated (with added titles) by Roy Sadler
SAINT JOHN’S TIDE
At the Altar of the Senses
v12
The world’s light-glancing beauty
compels me from the depths of soul
to free the god-enwoven powers of my life
in cosmic flight, forsake myself
and trusting, seek my Self
in cosmic light and warmth.

The mirror verse:
EPIPHANY II
At the Altar of the Heart
v41
The soul’s creative power
from depths of heart aspires
to fire the forces of the gods
to right activity in human life
and form itself in human love
and human deeds.

One in the Sun

Biography, Celestial Event, Festival, History, Poetry, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Upcoming Event
Hilma af Klint

POD (Poem Of the Day)

Sun your number is One
Multiplied by Billions
I am One too
With a thousand longings for unity
Before the after
An exaltation of now
In the timelessness of many
I walk in uprightness
Thru the burning cathedral of the Summer-Tide –
My bank of wild grass
Ever majestic & full of music
An eternal flame of renewal, pressing life
Against my skin to open soul to spirit
~hag

Art by Hilma af Klint

22 June 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”: The waxing crescent moon will glow near the planets Venus and Mars, plus the bright star Regulus in Leo the Lion, this evening and tomorrow evening. It will also be speaking to the star pattern known as the Sickle. You can catch Bella Luna and the Sickle from twilight until around midnight. Chart by John Jardine Goss/ EarthSky.

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day(RSarchives) 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY (Rudolf Steiner’s original Calendar of the Soul, Anthrowiki, Wikipedia Commons, Alchetron, The Free Social Encyclopedia)

Feast of St. Thomas More, “a man for all seasons.” From Rudolf Steiner: Things in Past and Present in the Spirit of Man, Lecture VIII – THOMAS MORE’S “UTOPIA” …”Thomas More was really fortune’s favourite. He advanced from various state offices, became a member of Parliment, and finally High Chancellor for Henry VIII who had him executed because he would not agree to the Succession Act. This was a sin against the new institution of the English Church. Then the enlightened Lord Justices had to decide what sort of judgement should be meted out to Thomas More. The following is the decision which these enlightened justices reached as the price Thomas More had to pay for his so-called treason of not going along with Henry VIII. He was to be condemned and brought to the Tower by Sheriff William Pinkston and then put in a braided basket and dragged through the City of London to Tiburn. In Tiburn he was to be hanged only until he was half dead, then he was to be taken down form the scaffold and certain of his limbs would be cut off; his body torn open and the entrails burned. Then his body with the exception of the head would be divided into four portions and each would be placed on a pike and set at the four ends of the City of London. His head, however would be put on a high spear and placed on London Bridge in order to serve as a warning for people to go along with the King. This was the sort of judgement that these enlightened lords issued. This was not carried out, however, he was beheaded and the head was placed upon a spear on London Bridge.”

Mental Floss

1527 Deathday of Niccolo Macchiavelli – “The Prince”

1633 – The Holy Office in Rome forces Galileo Galilei to recant his view that the Sun, not the Earth, is the center of the Universe.

1805 – Birthday of Giuseppe Mazzini, an Italian politician, journalist & activist for the unification of Italy spearheading the Italian revolutionary movement. Freemason – Grand Master of the Grand Orient of Italy. Rudolf Steiner speaks of him as a Hibernian initiate with Garibaldi & Cavour in Karmic Relationships: Esoteric Studies – Volume V

1839 – Cherokee leaders Major Ridge, John Ridge, & Elias Boudinot are assassinated for signing the Treaty of New Echota, which had resulted in the Trail of Tears

1892 – Birthday of Maria Darmstädter – a German religious scholar and Holocaust victim. Born to a prominent Jewish family from Mannheim, she was baptised in the Lutheran church as an adult and shortly after joined the newly established Christian Community in the early 1920s. She was one of the community’s first and most influential members, and contributed greatly to its liturgy. She was deported to Gurs internment camp by the Nazis in October 1940 and murdered in Auschwitz. Her letters from Nazi concentration camps were published in 1970. ~ Peter Selg, ‘From Gurs to Auschwitz: The Inner Journey of Maria Krehbiel-Darmstädter’, Great Barrington, 2013

1941 –Hitler invades the Russia in Operation Barbarossa

1942 – Pledge of Allegiance formally adopted by Congress

1969 – The Cuyahoga River catches fire in Cleveland, Ohio, drawing national attention to water pollution, & spurring the passing of the Clean Water Act & the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency

1978 – Charon, a satellite of the dwarf planet Pluto, is discovered by American astronomer James W. Christy

1990 – Checkpoint Charlie is dismantled in Berlin.

2002 – An earthquake measuring 6.5 Mw strikes northwestern Iran killing 261 people & injuring 1,300 others

2010 – Deathday of Ekkehard Meffert anthroposophist who studied geology, geography, philosophy (with a thesis on Cusa), Education, politics & history. Best known for his biography of Mathilde Scholl, one of the first esoteric students of Rudolf Steiner

~Kindling Radiance~
A Community Festival Gathering Celebrating St. John’s-Tide
Saturday, June 24, 2023 at Zinniker Farm

We have reached capcity! You can still support the Zinniker Farm and their regenerative work with your good will and contributions.Regenerative farming is Stewardship that provides true results for the healing of the Earth. It is time to make a lasting investment.

Please contact  Mark & Petra Zinniker to find out how to make a direct contribution to their regenerative work or sign up at  Patreon.com/Zinnikerfarm