Greetings Freinds – When we look up to the heavens around the time of MidSummer, we gain the impression that cosmic Intelligence is alive everywhere , an impression of many beings living within each other, interwoven with light. Up above we feel — everything we perceive is illumined, permeated, with a feeling of intelligence.
Yet down below, deep within the Earth, we feel —that in the blue darkness everything is experienced as will forces.
Iris Sullivan
Within this radiant activity there appears the extremely earnest countenance of the Archangel Uriel, which arises – glowing warmly out of the pervading radiant Intelligence. We have the impression that this Being forms its body of light, out of the radiant Intelligence. And for this to happen at the height of Summer, the elemental spirits of the Earth must soar upwards. And as they do, they weave themselves into the shining Intelligence up above, & the shining Intelligence receives them into itself. And out of that gleaming radiance Uriel takes form.
Daniel Moreau rendition of a drawing by Rudolf Steiner
It is with great earnestness that this representative of the weaving cosmic forces, seeking to embody himself in a vesture of light, appears in the time of Summer. The intelligence of Uriel arises from the working together of the planetary forces, supported by the working of the fixed stars of the Zodiac. The deeds accomplished by Uriel in the radiant light, preserves the thoughts of the cosmos, in his thoughts.
The feeling comes: “You clouds of summer, radiant with Intelligence, in which are reflected up above the blue crystal-formations of the earth below, just as these blue crystal-formations mirror in turn the shining Intelligence of the summer clouds — out of your shining there appears in high summer, with earnest countenance, a concentrated Imagination of Cosmic Understanding…Through the power of attraction residing in the concentrated cosmic Intelligence of Uriel, the silver forces (white) are drawn upwards, and in the light of this inwardly shining Intelligence, as seen from the Earth, they appear as radiant sunlight, densifying into a glory of gold. One has the immediate feeling that the gleaming silver, streaming up from below, is received by the sunlit radiance above. And the earth-silver — the phrase is quite correct — is changed by cosmic alchemy into the cosmic gold which lives and weaves in the heights.”
With the sprouting, springing life, we can no longer speak of matter permeated by spirit, as it is in winter. We have to speak of spirit woven through with matter – with silver and gold.
~A Summary of THE ST. JOHN IMAGINATION, from ~the Four Seasons and the Archangels, Lecture 4, by Rudolf Steiner
How can we apply these spiritual insights in our everyday life…?
~hag
17 June2023 – ‘Speaking with the Stars: The stars’ places before sunrise and after sundown are signals that the season is changing. Jupiter and Saturn are visible before sunrise, while brilliant Venus and Mars are in the west after sundown.
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY (Rudolf Steiner’s original Calendar of the Soul, Anthrowiki, Wikipedia Commons, Alchetron, The Free Social Encyclopedia)
Laia Nägeli Juan
International World Day to Combat Desertification & Drought.
1462 – Vlad Dracula (the Impaler) attempts to assassinate Mehmed II an Ottoman sultan forcing him to retreat from Wallachia
1631 – Mumtaz Mahal dies during childbirth. Her husband, Mughal emperor Shah Jahan I, will spend the next 17 years building her mausoleum, the Taj Mahal.
1885 – The Statue of Liberty arrives in New York Harbor
1928 – Amelia Earhart began the flight that made her the first woman to successfully fly across the Atlantic Ocean
1972 – Watergate scandal begins: Five White House operatives are arrested for burgling the offices of the Democratic National Committee, in an attempt by some members of the Republican party to illegally wiretap the opposition
1987 – With the death of the last individual of the species, the dusky seaside sparrow becomes extinct
1603 – Feast day of Joseph of Cupertino, Italian Franciscan friar who is honored as a Christian mystic & saint. He was said to have been remarkably unclever, but prone to miraculous levitation & intense ecstatic visions. He is the patron saint of air travelers, aviators, astronauts, people with a mental handicap, test takers & poor students.
1882 – Birthday of Igor Stravinsky, Russian pianist, composer, & conductor
~Kindling Radiance~ A Community Festival Gathering Celebrating St. John’s-Tide Saturday, June 24, 2023 at Zinniker Farm 5:30 pm – Potluck – Please bring food & drink to share 6 – 7 pm – Artistic Offerings – Poem, Song?… Express yourself! 7 – 9 pm – Bonfire Drum & Song Circle w/ Hazel & Ultra-Violet Archer
Why a St. John’s Festival? At this time of year, when daylight hours are the longest, “the soul of the earth rises in longing toward the heights, seeking communion with the universe, with the light and warmth of the sun… and the stars.” ~Rudolf Steiner.
Three days after the Summer Solstice, we celebrate St. John the Baptist – a lone voice calling to us from the wilderness to change our hearts and minds – so that we can connect to the ‘True Vine’ & receive the new impulse of Love raditating into the world. Come join us as we come together as a community to support the Farm & celebrate the glories of Summer.
Interested? Please… RSVP to margaretincommunity@gmail.com Subject: St. John’s Let us know the number of people you are RSVPing for And if someone in your group would like to offer a poem, song, story, etc. on the theme Bring food & drink to share (plates and utensils provided) Bring a friend, lawn chairs, drums, clothes and shoes for a working farm All are welcome, but please keep your pets at home. You can visit the pigs and chickens on the farm, but please remember these are farm animals and not pets. Please just look and say hello quietly and respectfully, with reverence and gratitude for their service.
Zinniker Farm is located at N7399 Bowers Rd., Elkhorn, WI 53121If you are in the area, come join us as we celebrate St. John’s-Tide on the Zinniker Farm.
Can’t make it in person? 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
Musical Performances by Lucien Dante Lazar; Speech – Geoffrey Norris; Eurythmy- Elizabeth Carlson; Practicum-Lisa Dalton; Leading Thoughts – Hazel Archer
“
A Summary of THE ST. JOHN IMAGINATION, from ~the Four Seasons and the Archangels, Lecture 4, by Rudolf Steiner
Can you hear the voice of conscience?
Johan Hagendorens
At the fullness of Summer, the light is so bright that it leaves no room for the shadow to hide. High Noon is the hour of judgment – a good time to remember what John said “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
4th seal
What is this deep longing we can have as human beings, to understand the purposeful Summer gaze of the powerful Archangel Uriel? Looking downward we have the impression we can learn to see with spiritual eyes into the blue, silver-gleaming depths of the Earth in summer. And Steiner tells us that weaving around these silver-gleaming crystalline rays are shapes — he calls them “disturbing shapes,which continually gather & dissolve”. We can come to an imagination that we may perceive these shapes as “human errors which stand out against the natural order of regular crystals here below”.
~hag
It is to this that Uriel directs his earnest gaze. Here during the height of summer the imperfections of humankind, in contrast to the harmonious regularity of the growing crystal forms, are measured. From Uriel we gain the impression of how human morality becomes interwoven with nature.
Here we recognize that the moral world-order is not abstract, we see that humanity has an effect in the world, for good or for ill. On the one hand, “all that is in human virtue & human excellence rises up with the silver-gleaming lines & is seen as the clouds that envelop Uriel (red). It enters into the radiant Intelligence, transmuted into cloud-shaped works of art”.
Van James
But it is impossible to look towards the increasingly earnest gaze of Uriel, directed towards the depths of the Earth, without also seeing there the human deeds that have missed the mark. To this the Archangel must direct us with: “wing-like arms, raised in earnest admonition, and this gesture by Uriel has the effect of imparting to humankind, what Steiner calls, “the historic conscience”.
This is Uriel’s “warning gesture”, pointing out how shabby humanity’s moral compass has become. And this reality comes as a mighty, living picture into our conscience.
Kira Yustak
“And now if we have gained the impression of the connection of human morality with the crystalline element below and of human virtues with the shining beauty above, and if we take these connections into our inward experience, the real St. John Imagination will come to meet us”.
~hag
16 June 2021– “Speaking with the Stars”: Eltanin and Rastaban represent the fiery eyes of the constellation Draco the Dragon
In June 1917 Rudolf Steiner spoke for the 1st time about Three-Folding…Are we ready to carry this seed to the next stage…?
“Understanding of the world as it actually is, ability to bring spiritual knowledge right down into the practical life of humanity, into the stubborn spheres of technical industry & economics, as well as into the thinking, the moral life & the actions of the human being – this is one side of Rudolf Steiner’s challenge. The other is the development of the inner life of soul which generates love for human beings and the wisdom to promote their spiritual & social wellbeing…The inspirer of the 20th century has lived among us, & lives among us still. Is it not for us to work as laborers unto harvest?” ~D.N. Dunlop, “Rudolf Steiner and the fulfillment of the Quest.
1361 – Deathday of Johannes Tauler, a disciple of Meister Eckhart, one of the most important Rhineland Mystics. He promoted a neo-platonist dimension in the Dominican spirituality of his time
1858 – Abraham Lincoln delivers his House Divided speech in Springfield, Illinois
1901 – Deathday of Herman Grimm, son of one of the “Brothers Grimm” compilers of indigenous folk tales. His reputation is that of the arch-Romantic, Gründerzeit art historian, he was viewed as the intellectual successor of Goethe. His approach to art history was through the “Great Masters,” & a biographical account of art history. Rudolf Steiner spoke about his past lives as Pliny the Younger & Beatrice of Tuscany.
1903 – The Ford Motor Company is incorporated
1904 – Irish author James Joyce begins a relationship with Nora Barnacle & subsequently uses the date to set the actions for his novel Ulysses; this date is now traditionally called “Bloomsday”
1911 – IBM founded in Endicott, New York
1920 – Dr. Rudolf Steiner, & Dr. Ita Wegman, founded “Futurum AG“, in Arlesheim, Switzerland, & “Der Kommende Tag AG (an incorporated company to encourage economic & spiritual values) in Stuttgart Germany. Both companies merged for economic reasons, & today is known as Weleda.
1932 – D.N. Dunlop plans “International Association for the Advancement of Spiritual Science”
1936 – Deathday of Emil Molt, used concepts of the 3-fold social order in his business. He was the founder of the first Waldorf School, where Rudolf Steiner was the pedagogical director. Steiner spoke of him as the individuality called Charlemagne.
Emil Molt, orphaned at 13, was born in southern Germany. After finishing high school he was apprenticed to Emil Georgii in the town of Calw, in the Black Forest. There he learned about money, his powerful work ethic, & wonderful customer service. He was diligent & a quick study, valued by his employer, who took the unusual step of asking him to work a year beyond his obligation.
During this time Molt met his wife-to-be, & felt an immediate inner connection. But he was not yet in a position to marry. At 19 he went to serve his obligatory year of military service in Ulm. When he was finished, he signed a four-year contract with a German-run export business in Greece, & moved to Patras. After one year, in which he learned much about international trade, Greece got into a war with Turkey over Crete, & lost. Germany had sided with Turkey, & so Germans were unpopular.
Molt was offered a position in Stuttgart with the son of Emil Georgii (who was also called Emil) which he accepted. He was finally in a position to marry his beloved Berta, with whom he had been corresponding continually. They got married & they settled down in Stuttgart to manage a cigarette manufacturing company owned by the younger Emil Georgii. Molt traces the ups & downs of the business, & tells the story of how he eventually came to be director & part owner of the Waldorf Astoria cigarette company. Under Molt’s direction the brand was highly successful. Molt was a sensitive & progressive manager, he experimented with such novelties as open-book management.
World War One was devastating to Germany, & difficult for the Waldorf Astoria cigarette company. But Waldorf fared better than most of its competitors due to Molt’s foresight in buying several years worth of raw materials at the start of the war, before Germany’s foreign currency became worthless (most of the tobacco came from Greece & Turkey). At the end of the war Molt had too many workers, because Molt had hired replacements for those that went off to fight. When the soldiers returned from the front, Molt did not want to simply fire the replacements. Instead he kept everyone on the payroll, & worked them half days. In the afternoons he held adult-education classes for his workers, & paid for them to attend. He offered courses in history, geography, paper-making, tobacco cultivation, as well as literature. These were popular, but the workers, unaccustomed to learning, found the courses tiring. This made him realize that to make a difference, education had to come to children, & so he started thinking of a school for the children of his workers.
Molt first heard Rudolf Steiner speak in 1904, & became a member of the Theosophical Society in 1906. Stuttgart was a hub of anthroposophical activity, & Steiner came through many times. The area had the first dedicated branch house (in 1911) & regular meetings. After the First World War Steiner spoke several times in lectures about things that could be done, & Molt felt called upon to act.
Molt & several other Stuttgart-based anthroposophists tried to establish the Threefold Social Order in Baden-Württemberg, but despite their tremendous efforts, this did not come about. But Molt did take his idea of a school for his worker’s children, which he had shared with the workers to great enthusiasm, to Rudolf Steiner, who took it up. Molt earmarked a substantial sum from the company profits to pay for the school. The school was opened within six months. For the first year it was a “company” school, with the teachers being paid as employees of the Waldorf Astoria Cigarette Company. A year later, in 1920, the school was made independent, at the insistence of the teachers. A charitable foundation was established to own & manage the school, & the Waldorf Astoria Cigarette Company continued to pay the tuition of the factory worker’s children. Many new pupils joined. Enrollment went from around 300 to 1,100 students in about 5 years. The school was considered a model, & other schools were founded shortly thereafter in other cities. In 1928 a Rudolf Steiner School as far away as New York was established.
While the school flourished, business went downhill in the 1920’s. Molt bought out his partners in the Waldorf Astoria Cigarette Company. Inspired by the idea of a business association to fund anthroposophical work he & several other Stuttgart-based anthroposophists donated their businesses, becoming shareholders in “Die Kommende Tag”. The association was poorly managed, & collapsed a year later. The Waldorf Astoria Cigarette Company, its prized asset, was sold by the association to some banks, who kept Molt on as manager. Molt lost his entire investment, as did many others. In 1928 the banks sold their interest to the largest cigarette manufacturer in Germany, which was in the process of buying out & liquidating the competition. Molt read about the sale in the newspaper, & was shortly out of a job, the Waldorf Astoria Cigarette Company relegated to history.
At his death in 1936 the Waldorf School was being slowly strangled by the Nazi’s, & was shut down a few months later. But the model survived. After the war, it reopened, & today there are over 900 recognized Waldorf Schools worldwide.
1961 – Rudolf Nureyev defects from the Soviet Union
1963 –Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova becomes the first woman in space
1967 – The Monterey Pop Festival begins
1976 – Soweto uprising: A non-violent march by 15,000 students in Soweto, South Africa turns into days of rioting when police open fire on the crowd
2008 – California began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples
~Kindling Radiance~ A Community Festival Gathering Celebrating St. John’s-Tide Saturday, June 24, 2023 at Zinniker Farm 5:30 pm – Potluck – Please bring food & drink to share 6 – 7 pm – Artistic Offerings – Poem, Song?… Express yourself! 7 – 9 pm – Bonfire Drum & Song Circle w/ Hazel & Ultra-Violet Archer
Why a St. John’s Festival? At this time of year, when daylight hours are the longest, “the soul of the earth rises in longing toward the heights, seeking communion with the universe, with the light and warmth of the sun… and the stars.” ~Rudolf Steiner.
Three days after the Summer Solstice, we celebrate St. John the Baptist – a lone voice calling to us from the wilderness to change our hearts and minds – so that we can connect to the ‘True Vine’ & receive the new impulse of Love raditating into the world. Come join us as we come together as a community to support the Farm & celebrate the glories of Summer.
Interested? Please… RSVP to margaretincommunity@gmail.com Subject: St. John’s Let us know the number of people you are RSVPing for And if someone in your group would like to offer a poem, song, story, etc. on the theme Bring food & drink to share (plates and utensils provided) Bring a friend, lawn chairs, drums, clothes and shoes for a working farm All are welcome, but please keep your pets at home. You can visit the pigs and chickens on the farm, but please remember these are farm animals and not pets. Please just look and say hello quietly and respectfully, with reverence and gratitude for their service.
Zinniker Farm is located at N7399 Bowers Rd., Elkhorn, WI 53121If you are in the area, come join us as we celebrate St. John’s-Tide on the Zinniker Farm.
Can’t make it in person? 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
~Birthed by a bird song Foretold in the stars All that I am Released in a Summer Storm Said I should fly ~hag
11 June – Today – is the Death-day of Alexander the Great.
According T.H. Meyer: On this day in 1924, Rudolf Steiner wrote a letter to Ita Wegman, from Koberwitz, during the Whitsun Agricultural Course, speaking about her incarnation as his former pupil, when he was Aristotle, & she, Alexander The Great.
Aristotle’s Influence On Education Of Alexander The Great …
After death, Aristotle & Alexander, just as before, when they worked as Eabani & Gilgamesh, continued to be active in the spiritual world for a long period of time, touching down once for a brief time connected with the Parzival saga. (*see below)
Then in 869 AD the entelechies of Aristotle & Alexander met, in the spiritual world, with Haroun al-Raschid & his counselor.
This coincided with the Council of 869 in Constantinople during which the concept of spirit was eliminated from the 3-fold human being, & was replaced with the polarized concept of body & soul.
Haroun al-Raschid & the opposing forces that he represented did not want Christianized Aristotelianism, only the teaching of natural science that has gradually taken the form of today’s scientific materialism, devoid of any true conception or reverence for divinity & creation; devoid of spiritual science.
This meeting in the spiritual world was a confrontation that was later reflected in earthly life thru the Quest for the Holy Grail & the striving for a union of early Christianity with the Arabian cultures that had preserved Aristotle’s works.
“For the natural science that Aristotle was able to pass on to Alexander needed for its comprehension souls that were still touched with the spirit of the Ephesian age, the time that preceded the burning of Ephesus. Such souls could only be found over in Asia or in Egypt, and it was into these parts that this knowledge of nature and insight into the Being of Nature were brought, by means of the expeditions of Alexander. Only later in a diluted form did they come over into Europe by many and diverse ways – especially by way of Asia Minor, Africa and Spain – but always in a very diluted or, as we might say, sifted form. The writings of Aristotle that came over into Europe directly were his writings on logic and philosophy. These lived on, and found fresh life again in medieval scholasticism.”
“…For we can see how the expeditions of Alexander and the teachings of Aristotle had this end in view: to keep unbroken the threads that unite humanity with the ancient spirituality, to weave them as it were into the material civilization that was to come, so they might endure until such time as new spiritual revelations should be given…” ~Rudolf Steiner, World History and the Mysteries in the Light of Anthroposophy, 1910.
Parcival findet Sigune mit dem toten Schionatulander auf einer …
*Brief indications by Rudolf Steiner say: “…they lived, unknown and unheeded, in a corner of Europe not without importance for Anthroposophy, dying at an early age, but gazing for a brief moment as it were through a window into the civilisation of the West, receiving impressions and impulses but giving none of any significance themselves. That was to come later.” ~GA 240
This points us to the figures of Schionatulander (Rudolf Steiner) & Sigune (Ita Wegman), who play an important, yet mostly overlooked role, in the Parsifal legend.
Sigune loves Schionatulander but she longs to read the stellar script, called “Brackenseil” – seen on the leash belonging to the hound “Gardevias” which means: ‘Guardian of the Pathways‘.
In the attempt to bring it to her, after she had lost it, Schionatulander is killed by Orilus who is actually looking for Parsifal. Schionatulander dies instead of Parsifal; & he becomes a guardian spirit of Parsifal & those on the Quest for the Holy Grail.
In a private conversation with Friedrich Rittelmeyer, Steiner spoke about that incarnation: “I was obliged to incarnate in a stream completely foreign to me in order to acquire the Christian fervor which I needed for the Thomas Incarnation.“
Dominus vobiscum, Et cum spiritu tuo.: Saint Thomas Aquinas, ora …
Incarnating together again to bear a new striving – the transformation of the cosmic Intelligence thru the Christ Impulse – they enter the Order of the Dominicans. Out of the quiet ‘cloister cell’ comes a world-wide influence inspired by the most illustrious scholar of the ecclesiastical system of thought, known as Scholasticism – thru Thomas Aquinas (Rudolf Steiner); & by his side is his confesser, the young Dominican, Reginald of Piperno (Ita Wegman).
Friedrich Walther | Sermon of Saint Albertus Magnus, the teacher of Thomas Aquinas
To grasp spiritual reality in pure thinking, to lead pure thinking with mathematical precision from idea to idea— this was the faculty developed by Scholasticism & bequeathed to the spiritual history of humankind thru its great teachers: Albertus Magnus (Marie Steiner)& Thomas Aquinas (Rudolf Steiner).
In contrast to the Christ Impulse which brings in the possiblity for the individual “I” consciousness to humanity – The Arabian culture adhered firmly to the old idea of cosmic, universal Intelligence. Thomas Aquinas brought the idea of personal Intelligence, to human thinking. The Arabian mind-set persisted in the contention that every human being can be fructified by the universal Intelligence, but that there is no personal thinking, no personal immortality – Much like the ancient Hindu teachings that say: at death a human being passes into the ocean of Cosmic Intelligence.
For Aquinas, whose thinking was combined with fervent Christian piety, the world of Ideas was connected with spiritual reality, coming to expression thru Beings he calls “Intelligences” living behind the world of the senses.
Thru the evolution of human consciousness, our thinking evolves from the cosmic realms of the “Intelligences” (the Planetary & Zodiacal Beings) to the earthly realm of human intelligence.
This is seen in the progression from the Elemental Beings connected with King Arthur’s Castle – to the countenance of Christ in the gaining of the Grail Castle.
In the “Arthurian stream” it was not yet realized that the Cosmic Intelligence had fallen away from Archangel Michael, & had come to human beings.
The Teachers of Chartres, like Alanus ab Insulis, working to foster the stream of the Grail Castle, were representative of the Intelligence that had now become Christian & human – a polar contrast to the Castle of King Arthur.
Steiner’s Spiritual Sceince shows us that the Teachers of Chartres, then working in the spiritual world, had realized the significance of personal immortality, realized that the Intelligence had become human, & were aware of the Christian thinking in the Grail stream, connected with the world of stars, but that this knowledge would have to sleep for a time in the spiritual world, so that the intellect could be born in freedom.
Sea Cooke
And now in our time the 2 streams must merge, to create a unity within the world.
From the Karmic Relationships lectures: “Aristotle and Alexander had centuries earlier witnessed, from the spiritual world, the departure of Christ from the sphere of the Sun towards Golgotha. This called forth in their souls “the challenge to set a new beginning – not to continue what had been on the earth before this mystery, but to begin completely anew.”
“Henceforth, Aristotle and Alexander must work – who already in antiquity were equal to the concepts and ideas of the fifth post-Atlantean age.” – Karmic Relationships, 1924.
Poem written by Rudolf Steiner to Ita Wegman:
There, where the light In face of green demons Is tremulous, And the primordial Powers Born of the light To wrestling men Proclaim the riddle, Which from the demons Only by men can be enticed forth And brought to the Gods There soul found soul In order to offer someday to waiting Gods The secrets of demons In a darkened place That light may be born, Where for want of this deed Eternal darkness held sway. Such a place there is It must vanish Make it someday vanish, So speaks the admonishing Gaze of Michael.
And so it is dear friends, that The future Age of Love & Freedom, prepared thru the marriage of the 2 Streams, is characterized by the fact that human beings must learn to see thru the attacks made by the ‘demons’. We cannot run. We cannot hide. On the contary – We have to step in – We are called to uncover the secrets behind these demons – to awaken to what is really working within their deeds. And to pass on these mysteries of ‘evil’ to the Hierarchies of the ‘good gods’ – our ever present helpers, to receive the Wisdom needed so that we cantake on the responsibility of transforming evil.
Since the advent of the Consciousness Soul Age we can use our imaginative cognition to move our thinking in a lemniscate from head to heart, & from heart to head.
We must learn the secret that the Fox told the Little Prince, “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eyes.”
Let us step into the world, to meet our Higher Self, & to meet each other – to stand together in the glory of the Spirirt Sun. And at night, under the myriad canopy of Stars, we will be invited to share in the cosmic conversation of our collective evolution.
So may this anniversary of the Death of Alexander the Great, be our reminder to take up again & once again our tasks at hand.
~hag
~John Jardine Goss/ EarthSky.
11 June 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Brilliant Venus (or as Steiner tells us: Occult Mercury) – our sky’s brightest planet – will take on the roll of queen bee when it passes by the Beehive star cluster. Look west shortly after darkness falls for Venus and the Beehive as they make an interesting and beautiful sight.
RUDOLF STEINER’S CALENDAR OF THE SOUL translated with added titles by Roy Sadler TRINITY II Soul Consecration v10 The being of the sun ascends to summer’s heights and takes my human feeling far and wide and into the sublime, the cosmic harmony wherein a dawning vision’s intimating faintly, ‘in future you will know: a holy being felt you now’
The mirror verse EPIPHANY IV (IMBOLC) World Consecration v43 In winter’s depths true spirit presence warms, makes new appearance real and through the heart’s force intuits earthlife’s rise to glory; the soul’s revitalising fire in the human core defies world cold.
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY (Rudolf Steiner’s orginal Calendar of the Soul, Anthrowiki, Wikipedia Commons)
323 – Deathday of Alexander The Great
1184 BC – Trojan War: Troy is sacked and burned
1194 – Fire at Chartres Cathedral
1346 – Birthday of Charles IV (the last initiate to become Holy Roman Emperor)
1364 – Deathday of Agnes of Hungary, patroness of Konigsfelden monastery
1924 – Rudolf Steiner sends Ita Wegman a letter speaking about her incarnation as Alexander The Great.
1963 – Buddhist monk Thích Quảng Đức burns himself with gasoline in a busy Saigon intersection to protest the lack of religious freedom in South Vietnam
1963 – John F. Kennedy addresses Americans from the Oval Office proposing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that would revolutionize American society. Proposing equal access to public facilities, end segregation in education and guarantee federal protection for voting right
Why a St. John’s Festival? At this time of year, when daylight hours are the longest, “the soul of the earth rises in longing toward the heights, seeking communion with the universe, with the light and warmth of the sun… and the stars.” ~Rudolf Steiner.
Three days after the Summer Solstice, we celebrate St. John the Baptist – a lone voice calling to us from the wilderness to change our hearts and minds – so that we can connect to the ‘True Vine’ & receive the new impulse of Love raditating into the world. Come join us as we come together as a community to support the Farm & celebrate the glories of Summer.
Interested? Please… RSVP to margaretincommunity@gmail.com Subject: St. John’s Let us know the number of people you are RSVPing for And if someone in your group would like to offer a poem, song, story, etc. on the theme Bring food & drink to share (plates and utensils provided) Bring a friend, lawn chairs, drums, clothes and shoes for a working farm All are welcome, but please keep your pets at home. You can visit the pigs and chickens on the farm, but please remember these are farm animals and not pets. Please just look and say hello quietly and respectfully, with reverence and gratitude for their service.
Zinniker Farm is located at N7399 Bowers Rd., Elkhorn, WI 53121If you are in the area, come join us as we celebrate St. John’s-Tide on the Zinniker Farm.
Can’t make it in person? 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
~My song raps itself around The belly of the New Sophia Pulsing in union with The Logos In rhythm with the Sun streaming In the All-Space of the Fixed Stars Forming fresh consonants in Time Into the aura of imaginations That inform my soul thru rolling vowels Of planetary bodies That sing their echo into my open ear… ~hag
~hag
“One gets smart through experience, but wisdom is the force that streams into us from the spiritual world and then streams out again. Wisdom also comes from the mouth of babes. When what streams out comes more from the feeling, it is wisdom, but when it stimulates a person into action so that productivity predominates, it is love.
But one has to know what love really is. Someone may feel sympathy for a person’s misfortune, but that isn’t real love. Sympathy only becomes love if one steps in and helps them.
Wisdom and love make up the I. The I is love and wisdom that have become will. This is the higher triad.” ~Rudolf Steiner, Esoteric Lessons, Hamburg. 31 May 1908
Dear friends – Our task is to make this spiritual wisdom which has imprinted into our feeling life from the spiritual world, conscious. We do this by noticing the after images & complementary colors that come with memory, taking the feelings out of the astral, using them to stimulate the etheric body instead. Then when we stream out with our feelings – we can consciously unite with the soul of all we see in the world.
We become truly wise when our feelings can add to the wisdom in the soul of the world.
When we do this we are using our imagination to become inspired. We look out at the beauty of nature, for instance, & we are filled with reverence & awe. When we bring our soul forces consciously in hand, we can enter the soul-life of another human being to unite with them – we feel ‘moved’ by their joys or misfortune & together we can share a common fellowship or love. This brings in intuition.
~hag
7 June 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”: From an article by Dr Elizabeth Vreede: ” Comets represent an element that does not wholly enter the usual sphere of cosmic law, although they still contain a trace of the direct working of spiritual powers, indeed, of the very highest — the Seraphim and Cherubim. Before ordinary law may be broken through, the very highest power and insight is required. The various comets, indeed, are agents of a very special nature in our planetary system, their polar antithesis being in the moons. Just as the moons are a kind of corpse which the planetary system trails along with it, so, on the other side, the comets may be spoken of as constant purifiers of the spiritual atmosphere within the solar system. In earlier times men thought of them as the “scavengers of God,” and many superstitions have gathered around them. To the eye of Spirit, too, the mission of the comets is perpetually to expel impure astral forces from the Cosmos or to introduce new impulses.“
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY (Rudolf Steiner’s orginal Calendar of the Soul, Anthrowiki, Wikipedia Commons)
~Rudolf Steiner
7 June 1924 – Beginning of the “Agricultural Course” on the Koberwitz estate of Count & Countess Keyserlingk – The Founding of Biodynamic Agriculture by Rudolf Steiner.
Following the occult responsibility of a great initiate, Rudolf Steiner waited until the seeds of an idea came to him from striving individuals in order, when the time was ripe, to plant, & nurture a new impulse in the world.
Steiner’s Agriculture Course encompassed just 8 lectures presented over a 10 day period during the Whitsun-tide of 1924, from June 7th thru the 16th, at the small village of Koberwitz, Silesia (now Kobierzyce, Poland).
Count Carl Keyserlingk was an anthroposophist, & the estate manager of 18,500 acres at Koberwitz. He managed 18 farms, with more than 1000 workers. So Keyserlingk was keen for Steiner to present a course for farmers – Especially since there was concern among the farmers about of the rapid change in agricultural practices in the wake of the supply of cheap synthetic nitrogenous fertilizer flowing from the adoption of the Haber-Bosch process for the ‘fixing’ of gaseous nitrogen which was first demonstrated in 1909 & which was then rapidly industrialized on a grand scale for explosives, & after WWI, for fertilizer.
Ehrenfried Pfeiffer’s account relates that: “Count Keyserlingk set to work in dead earnest to persuade Dr. Steiner to give an agricultural course. As Dr. Steiner was already overwhelmed with work, tours & lectures, he put off his decision from week to week. The undaunted Count then dispatched his nephew to Dornach, with orders to camp on Dr. Seiner’s doorstep & refuse to leave without a definite commitment for the course. This was finally given.”
Keyserlingk was the driving force behind the agriculture course. He was described by Elisabeth Vreede, who was at the course, as “one to whom farming itself was a priestly office” According to the Astrosopher: “Count Keyserlingk had realised the dire need for a complete revival of cultural methods”.
Steiner described his Agriculture Course as: “A course of lectures containing what there is to be said about agriculture from an anthroposophical point of view.” Steiner stated that “the contents of these lectures were to serve, in the first place, as working material for the Association of farmers which had just been founded in the Anthroposophical Society”.Steiner stressed the importance of practical demonstrations: “As to the farmers – well, if they hear of these things from a fellow-farmer, they will say, “What a pity he has suddenly gone crazy!” … But eventually when he sees a really good result, he will not feel a very easy conscience in rejecting it outright”.
He empowered the Agricultural Experimental Circle (AEC): “enhance it and develop it by actual experiments and tests. The farmers’ society – the “Experimental Circle” that has been formed – will fix the point of time when in its judgment the tests and experiments are far enough advanced to allow these things to be published”.
He stressed the importance of confidentiality: “No kind of communication was to be made about the contents of the Course until such time as the members of the Association felt impelled to speak out of the results of their own experimental work”.Steiner was cautious because the interests of what we now know as ‘big Ag’ was just starting to put pressure on farmers to use their products. There were spies from the growing industry that wanted to buy up the rights to this new impulse so that they could suppress it. And indeed the Count was very much harassed by those who worked to discredit the Agricultural Experimental Circle (AEC).
It was critical that a project development plan was set in place at Koberwitz to keep the impulse going, because the Ag Course was never repeated as such, since Steiner was seriously ill. His public life – & life itself, were drawing to a close. The continuing vitality of this vital agricultural impulse was dependent on the successful passing of the baton unto others. The AEC began with 60 members of the Koberwitz Course (out of the course’s total enrollment of 111), with Ernst Stegemann & Carl Keyserlingk appointed by Steiner as chairmen.
By 1929, the Natural Science Section of the Goetheanum reported the positive news that the work of translating Steiner’s ‘hints’ was by then a global enterprise: “Dr. Steiner’s new methods for Agriculture have been investigated and applied on a practical and on an experimental basis.”
Steiner was prophetic in much of what he taught. He presented the farm as “a living organism”. He spoke against a purely chemical view & a chemical reductionist view. Long before the costs of nitrogen pollution were monetized, Steiner, with great vision, put it in a nutshell: “There is a big difference between nitrogen and nitrogen. He spoke of “the degradation of the products of agriculture”& observed that:“Nowadays people simply think that a certain amount of nitrogen is needed for plant growth, and they imagine it makes no difference how it’s prepared or where it comes from. Where it comes from, however, is not a matter of indifference.”
Steiner urged the adoption of a holistic view, & he stated that “we’ve lost the knowledge of what it takes to continue to care for the natural world.” He urged his listeners to take “the macrocosmic approach”& to “see individual plants as parts of a single whole.” He was critical of the approach where living things are “neatly pigeonholed into separate species & genera”, adding:“But that is not how things are in nature. In nature, and actually throughout the universe, everything is in mutual interaction with everything else.”
“The most important thing is to make the benefits of our agricultural preparations available to the largest possible areas over the entire earth, so that the earth may be healed and the nutritive quality of its produce improved in every respect. That should be our first objective.” ~Rudolf Steiner
I am grateful every day for our connection to the Zinniker Farm – the oldest Biodynamic Farm in America, just 2 hours from the Windy City.
If you are in the area, come join us as we honor the farm in a community celebration of the St. John’s Festival. Can’t make it in person? You can still support the farm with your good will, & donations are always welcome.
Regenerative farming is Stewardship that provides true results for the healing of the Earth. It is time to make a lasting investment
~Look, I have light In my eyes & on my skin… The star is warming… And everything alive is turning Into something else Deep in the alchemical Heart Of some annihilating Ever creative fire That is burning unnoticed Waiting to touch Me & you… ~hag
~John Jardine Goss/ EarthSky.
5 June 2023 – Speaking with the Stars”: The waning gibbous moon will pass through the center of the Teapot – an asterism in Sagittarius the Archer – today & tomorrow. You can catch them around midnight until dawn.
The Arietids are an active shower, but they’re visible mostly in daytime. Watch for them in the sunrise direction in the dark hour before dawn peaking today thru June 17. You’ll be looking for meteors that shoot up from the horizon. The radiant is below the constellation Aries.
8 June 2023
RUDOLF STEINER’S CALENDAR OF THE SOUL translated (with added titles) by Roy Sadler CORPUS CHRISTI My Spirit Vision Is To Lose Myself In Light v9 And when I let my own will go the comming of the summer’s warmth will fill my soul and spirit being; my spirit vision is commanding me to lose myself in light, and ardently my foresight’s calling: ‘lose yourself. to find your Self’.
The third line of the mirror verse, a translation of ‘Eingedenk vollzogener Geistgeburt’, is the Soul Calendar’s only trochaic one: the other 336 are iambic, which Steiner described as essential for meditations leading to the world from the heart. The emphasis of ‘Mindful of the spirit’s birth fulfilled’ acts as a balance to all the other lines; and the Soul Calendar would be meaningless without the birth of the child that gave rise to the Christ on Earth.
CANDLEMAS Mindful Of The Spirit Birth Fulfilled v44 And when I grasp the senses’ new allure the clarity of soul, mindful of the Spirit-birth fulfilled, imbues the world’s bewildering, fresh sprouting growth with my creative will of thinking.
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY (Rudolf Steiner’s orginal Calendar of the Soul, Wikipedia Commons)
World Environment Day – raising global awareness to take positive environmental action to protect nature & the planet Earth.
Benjamin West
1752 – Benjamin Franklin flew a kite for the first time to demonstrate that lightning was a form of electricity
1832 – The ‘June Rebellion’ breaks out in Paris in an attempt to overthrow the monarchy of Louis Philippe
1883 – The first regularly scheduled Orient Express departs Paris
1906 – Death day of Eduard von Hartmann– Born 1842, von Hartmann was originally an officer in the Prussian army. Because of an illness, he retired from military service and took up an intensive study of philosophy. In 1869 his Philosophie des Unbewussten (Philosophy of the Unconscious) appeared, and made him famous almost overnight.
Rudolf Steiner describes a personal impression of von Hartmann, when he visited him in Berlin in 1888 after a long correspondence over many years. He describes the chilling effect he had on him – the way this philosopher of pessimism denied that thinking could ever reach reality, but must forever deal with illusions. Steiner was already clear in his mind how such obstacles were to be overcome. He did not stop at the problem of knowledge, but carried his ideas from this realm into the field of ethics, to help him deal with the problem of human freedom. He wanted to show that morality could be given a sure foundation without basing it upon imposed rules of conduct.
From Rudolf Steiner’s biography: “…More than anything else at that time I craved to know personally Eduard von Hartmann, with whom I had corresponded for years in regard to philosophical matters. This was to take place during a brief stay in Berlin which followed that in Weimar.
I had the privilege of a long conversation with the philosopher. He lay upon a sofa, his legs stretched out and his upper body erect. It was in such a posture that he passed by far the greater part of his life from the time when the suffering with his knee began. I saw before me a forehead which was an evident manifestation of a clear and keen understanding, and eyes which in their look revealed that assurance felt in the innermost being of the man as to that which he knew. A mighty beard framed in the face. He spoke with complete confidence, which showed how he had woven certain basic thoughts about the whole world-concept and thus in his way illuminated it. In these thoughts everything which came to him from other points of view was at once overwhelmed with criticism. So I sat facing him while he sharply passed, judgment upon me, but in reality never inwardly listened to me. For him the being of things lay in the unconscious, and must ever remain hidden there so far as concerned human consciousness; for me the unconscious was something which could more and more be raised up into consciousness through the strivings of the soul’s life. During the course of the conversation about this, I said that one should not assume beforehand that a concept is something severed from reality and representing only an unreality in consciousness. Such a view could never be the starting-point for a theory of cognition. For by this means one shuts oneself off from access to all reality in that one can then only believe that one is living in concepts and that one can never approach toward a reality except, through hypothetical concepts – that is, in an unreal manner. One should rather seek to prove beforehand whether this view of the concept as an unreality is tenable, or whether it rises out of a preconception. Eduard von Hartmann replied that there could be no argument as to this; in the very definition of the term “concept” lay the evidence that nothing real is to be found there. When I received such an answer I was chilled to the soul. Definitions to be the point of departure for conceptions of life! I realized how far removed I was from contemporary philosophy. While I sat in the train on my return journey, buried in thoughts and recollections of this visit, which was nevertheless so valuable to me, I felt again that chilling of the heart. It was something which affected me for a long time afterward.” ~Rudolf Steiner, THE STORY OF MY LIFE, GA 28 Chapter IX
“…Now when I came to study this personality, it dawned upon me one day that there was very special importance in the onset of this knee affliction…When I was able to bring the affliction of the knee into its right relation with the whole personality, I began to perceive how destiny manifested in the life of this man. And then I could go back. It was not by starting from the head of Eduard von Hartmann, but from the knee, that I found the way to his earlier incarnations.
And in the case of Eduard von Hartmann, as soon as I turned my attention to the affliction of the knee, I was guided to his earlier incarnation, during which at a certain moment in his life he had a kind of sunstroke. In respect of destiny, this sunstroke was the cause that led in the next earthly life, through metamorphosis, to an infirmity of the knee — the sunstroke being, as you will realise, an affliction of the head. One day he was no longer able to think. He had a kind of paralysis of the brain, and this came to expression in the next incarnation as an affliction of one of the limbs. Now the destiny that led to paralysis of the brain was due to the following circumstances. — This individuality was one of those who went to the East with the Crusades and fought over in Asia against the Turks and Asiatic peoples, acquiring, however, a tremendous admiration for the latter. The Crusaders encountered very much that was great and sublime in the East, and the individuality of whom we are speaking absorbed it all with deep admiration. And now he came across a man concerning whom he felt instinctively that he had had something to do with him in a still earlier life. The account, so to speak, that had now to be settled between this and the still earlier incarnation, was a moral account. The metamorphosis of the sunstroke in one incarnation into the affliction of the knee in the next appears at first to be a purely physical matter, but when it is a question of destiny we are invariably led back to something that appertains to the moral life. This individuality bore with him from a still earlier incarnation the impulse to wage a fierce battle with the man whom he now encountered and in the heat of the blazing sun he set about persecuting his opponent. The persecution was unjust, and it recoiled upon the persecutor himself inasmuch as his brain was paralysed by the heat of the sun. What was to be brought to an issue in this fight originated in a still earlier incarnation when this individuality had been brilliantly, outstandingly clever. The opponent whom he encountered during the Crusades had suffered injury and embarrassment in an earlier incarnation at the hands of this brilliant individuality. As you see, it all leads back to the moral life, for the forces in play originated in the earlier incarnation.
Thus we have three consecutive incarnations of an individuality. A remarkably clever and able personality in very ancient times — that is one incarnation. Following that, a Crusader, who at a certain time in his life gets paralysis of the brain, brought about as the result of a wrong committed by his cleverness which had, however, in the next incarnation, caused him to acquire tremendous admiration for oriental civilisation. Third incarnation: a Prussian officer who is obliged to retire owing to an affliction of the knee, does not know what to do with his time, goes in for philosophy and writes a most impressive book, a perfect product of the civilisation of the second half of the 19th century: The Philosophy of the Unconscious.
Once this connection of lives is perceived, things that were previously obscure become quite clear. When I was reading Hartmann while I was still young, without knowing anything about these connections, I always had the feeling: Yes, this is extremely clever! But when I had read one page I used to think: There is something brilliantly clever here, but the cleverness is not on this particular page! I always felt I must turn the page and look at the previous one to see if the cleverness were there. In short, the cleverness in this writing was not of today, but of yesterday, or of the day before yesterday.
Light came to me for the first time when I perceived: the outstanding cleverness really lies two incarnations ago and is working on from there. Great illumination is shed upon the whole of this Hartmann literature — which, as I said, is a library in itself — as soon as one realises that the cleverness in it is working on from a much earlier incarnation.
And when one came to know Eduard von Hartmann personally and was talking with him, one also felt: another man is there behind him, but even he is not the one who is talking; behind him again is a third, and it is the third who is really the source of the inspirations. For listening to Hartmann was often enough to drive one to despair! There was an officer, talking philosophy without enthusiasm, apathetically, speaking with a certain crudity of the loftiest truths. One could see how things really were only when one knew: the cleverness behind what he says is that of two incarnations ago.
It may seem disrespectful to relate such things, but no disrespect whatever is intended. Moreover I am convinced that it can be of great value for any human being to know of such connections and apply them to his own life, even if it means that he has to say to himself: Three incarnations ago I was an out-and-out scoundrel! It can be of immense benefit to life when a man can say to himself: In one incarnation or another, perhaps not only in one, I was a thoroughly bad lot! In speaking of such things, just as in other circumstances present company is always excepted, so here present incarnations are excepted!”
1915 – Denmark amends its constitution to allow women’s suffrage
1917 – American men began registering for the World War I draft
1924 – Ernst F. W. Alexanderson transmitted the first facsimile message across the Atlantic Ocean
1933 – President Roosevelt signed the bill that took the U.S. off of the gold standard
1967 – The Six Day War between Israel and Egypt, Syria and Jordan began today
1968 – Robert F. Kennedy, is shot at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles.
until now
1981 – The first recognized cases of what later became known as AIDS
2012 – The last transit of Venus (occult Mercury) of the 21st century begins
~Kindling Radiance~
A Community Festival Gathering Celebrating St. John’s-Tide
Saturday, June24, 2023 at Zinniker Farm
5:30 pm Potluck– Please bring food & drink to share
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