Category Archives: Rudolf Steiner Quote

The Octave of the Immaculate Heart

August 22, 2023Festival, History, Poetry, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Upcoming Events~hag

Immaculate Heart of Mary with Doves and Lace –8.5x11" based on a ...

POD (Poem Of the day)

~Searching for the Peace Path
Leading to the Queen of Heaven
Gathering hot iron
From the falling stars along the way
Feeding the Tree of Life
With redeemed Sulphur
To forge the sword of Michael…
My heart beating in Immaculate rhythm
I reach for The Anointed One
In these Dog-Days
Tying the key to the kite
In the gathering
clouds…
~hag

Queen of Heaven - Wikipedia — Diego Velázquez

Today we meet the Octave of the Assumption: Tradition celebrates two main feasts of Mary in August. The first is the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary on August 15, & the second is the Feast of the Queenship of Mary on August 22 (also known as The feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary)

The feast of the Assumption has been celebrated since the 5^th or 6th century & for many years its festival was extended by an octave.

Our ancestors celebrated all major feasts for eight days = for an octave. Essentially the same liturgy was said, using the same liturgical texts each day of the octave.

The eighth day of the octave was seen as a heightened experience, honoring the spiritual themes of the feast for the last time. For this reason a complimentary feast was often instituted on this eighth day.

When it came to the Assumption, it had an octave celebration for many centuries. Then on May 4, 1944, Pope Pius XII established the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary on August 22, the octave day of the feast of the Assumption. He did this so that by her intercession may be obtained “peace among nations, the love of purity and the practice of virtue.”

However, Pope Paul VI decided to switch the feasts of the Immaculate Heart and the Queenship of Mary. The feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary was joined to the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (celebrated on the Saturday following the feast of the Sacred Heart, typically around the Summer Solstice June 20) and the I’m not one to give authority to Papal Bulls but when it comes to the Mary’s I always seek to bring forth the essence of the Divine Feminine from out the Matrix… was moved to August 22. Mary becomes the “Queen of Heaven.” The power of the Queenship of Mary is that she is a “Queen of Peace.”

Queen of Peace, an art print by Qistina Khalidah - INPRNT — Qistina Khalidah

I’m not one to give much authority to Papal Bulls, but when it comes to the ‘Mary’s’ I always seek to bring forth the essence of the Divine Feminine from out the Matrix…

“May all recognize more clearly and venerate more devoutly the merciful and maternal sway of the Mother of God. May this feast help to preserve, strengthen and prolong that peace among nations which daily is almost destroyed by recurring crises. Is she not a rainbow in the clouds reaching towards God, the pledge of a covenant of peace?”

After her Assumption into Heaven, Mary is Queen of Heaven, right there beside her Son, The Being of Love, listening to our prayers. She is the true “Queen of Peace,” who can help us turn the tide of war & conflict thru her powerful intercession.

Pietro Annigoni: Immaculate Heart of Mary — Art+Christianity — Pietro Annigoni

May we strive to make our hearts Immaculate to share the true Crown of our Queen & become a beacon of Love & peace in our world.

~hag

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

~Elizabeth Wang

“The aim of science is to discover and illuminate truth. And that, I take it, is the aim of literature, whether biography or history… It seems to me, then, that there can be no separate literature of science.” ~Rachel Carson

Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary & the Queenship of Mary– a celestial follow-up to the Assumption, now celebrated on the octave day of that feast

392 –Birthday of Eugenius elected – the last Roman Emperor to support polytheism

Image result for OdoacerÂ a soldier became the first King of Italy

476 – Birthday of Odoacer a soldier became the first King of Italy. His reign is commonly seen as marking the end of the Western Roman Empire

565 –Birthday of Columbaa, Christian saint -one of the ‘Twelve Apostles of Ireland’ reports seeing a monster in Loch Ness, Scotland

Image result for Pope Gregory IX, established the PapalÂ Inquisition

1241 – Deathday of Pope Gregory IX, established the Papal Inquisition

Image result for 1849 â TheÂ first air raidÂ in history. Austria launches pilotless balloons against the city of Venice

1849 – The first air raid in history. Austria launches pilotless balloons against the city of Venice

Image result for first geneva convention 1864

1864 – Twelve nations sign the First Geneva Convention

1862 – Birthday of Claude Debussy

1902 – Cadillac Motor Company is founded

1902 – Theodore Roosevelt becomes the first President to ride in an automobile

Image result for Rudolf Steinerâs 4thÂ Mystery Drama:Â The Soulsâ Awakening

1913 – 1^st performance of Rudolf Steiner’s 4^th Mystery Drama: The Souls’ Awakening

Image result for 1932 â TheÂ BBCÂ begins television broadcastingÂ using John Logie Bairdâs system

1932 – The BBC begins television broadcasting using John Logie Baird’s system

1941 – World War II: German troops begin the Siege of Leningrad

1944 – World War II: Holocaust of Kedros in Crete by German force

*1947 – Deathday of Francis Delaisi, French social economist spoken of by Rudolf Steiner in ‘Fall of the Spirits of Darkness’ Lecture 14 Dornach, 28 October 1917

“For once, therefore, a man woke up and saw that what mattered was not to proclaim democracy but to see the full reality, not to follow slogans, but to see things as they are. This would be particularly important today, for people would then realize that the events which reign with such blood and terror over the whole of humanity are guided and directed from just a few centres. People will never realize this if they persist in the delusion that nation is fighting nation, and allow the European and American Press to lull them to sleep over the kinds of relations that are said to exist between nations. Everything said about antagonism and opposition between nations only exists to cast a veil over the true reasons. For we shall never arrive at the real truth if we feed on words in order to explain these events, but only if we point to actual people. The problem is that this tends to be unpalatable today. And the man who woke up and wrote these statements in 1910 also presented some highly unwelcome accounts in his book. He produced a list of fifty-five individuals who are the real rulers and exploiters of France. The list can be found in Francis Delaisi’s La Democratie et les Financiers, written in 1910; the same man has also written La Guerre qui vient, a book which has become famous. In his La Democratie et les Financiers you will find statements of fundamental significance. There you have someone who has woken up to reality. The book contains impulses which allow one to see through much of what we should see through today, and also to cut through much of the fog which is made to wash over human brains today. Here again, we must resolve to look to reality.

The book has, of course, been ignored. It does, however, raise issues which should be raised all over the world today, for they would teach people much about the reality which others intend to bury under all their declamations on democracy and autocracy and whatever the slogans may be.” ~Rudolf Steiner

Image result for 1961 âÂ Ida SiekmannÂ dies attempting to cross the Berlin Wall

1961 – Ida Siekmann dies attempting to cross the Berlin Wall

1962 – The OAS attempts to assassinate French president Charles de Gaulle

1971 – J. Edgar Hoover & John Mitchell announce the arrest of 20 of the Camden 28, a group of “Christian leftists” anti-Vietnam War activists.

2006 – Russian passenger plane crashes over eastern Ukraine, killing all 170 people on board

Saturday 23 September 2023

Community Prep-Stir / Potluck / Bon-fire

*Autumnal Equinox

*Yom Kippur

*Michaelmas Festival

6 – 8 pm at the Lucchesi-Archer-Ginsberg domicile

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

RSVP Hazel@ReverseRitual.com

30 September 2023 – Michaelmas Festival & Zinniker Farm Day

for more info.

Vidar = Christ Bearer

August 20, 2023Community, Festival, History, Poetry, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Upcoming Events~hag

Greetings Friends – There is a powerful magic in the August air. The harvest is unfolding. Cosmic Iron is scintillating in our blood – seeding our souls for Michaelmas.

Last year on this date 20 August, a group of us met in the Upper Room of the Rudolf Steiner Branch, Chicago, to explore the idea of co-creating a New Festival called Vidarmas – as a gateway & compliment to Michaelmas – to acknowledge this young Archangel as the inspiring Being of Community Life, connected with pure ether forces – & in connection to our need to experience ‘The Etheric Christ‘ which is our task in this age.

Big thanks to Rob Treiste for this cool chart

The Four Ethers & the Four Elements overlap to create the seven layers of the Physical-Etheric World, & the 7-fold human being. To begin to understand this gives us insight into our task with Vidar.

I remember looking into Norse mythology thru the lens of Spiritual Science when my girl was in 4^th grade at the Chicago Waldorf School. Rudolf Steiner tells us that Wotan or Odin was an Archangelic being, who later appeared as Siddhārtha carrying on the mission of Odin to become the Gautama-Buddha.

‘Woden and the Grail‘:

And Odin hung for nine days
from the Earth’s One Tree,
his eye gouged for wisdom gained,
a loss so he could see.

He waited long upon this throne
as Godlike days passed.
For the future he’d wait to see;
how to make his time last.

The One-God was coming
for this was surely told
but how to manage tomorrow
for the long lost Gods of old.

His wolves, and horse, and crows
they stood and gathered near
looking long for his wisdom
against the lives they held so dear.

Then Odin smiled upon the ninth day
for the answer there did lie
within the Earthen Tree
he had helped himself to tie.

Lowered now to the ground,
sodden by his many tears,
he drew nigh his greatest friends
those who waited the many years.

Turning to the tree he drew
deep from within its heart
a living chalice made of wood
from which to make a start.

Come my friends gather round
and for the past do not wail
as we hold the future steady now
within this Earthen Holy Grail.

~Mac Andrew

Vidar, unseated by Loki, becomes the “Silent Aesir” – the only one to survive Ragnarok, conquering the Fenrris Wolf who wants to devour the Sun.

Important to remember that every human being has a guardian angel; & that before Siddhārtha became the Buddha he had one too. When he achieved Buddhahood, his angel was ‘freed’ – Able to ascend to a higher rank.

After much time as the “Silent Aesir”, this angel – went on to work with the Nathan Soul & with the Christ thru the pre-earthly deeds etc…(You can read about this angel working at the ‘Turning Point of Time’ in the Gospel of Luke Chapter 2 & in Matthew 1:18–25.)

Rudolf Steiner connects Buddha’s angel with Vidar.

So we can see that Vidar is linked, not only to what we hear about him thru mythology, but also to Buddhism, & to the ‘Nathan Soul’ – that pure paradisiacal ‘Sister Soul of Adam’ that did not go thru the fall from paradise – but was held back in the Mother-lodge to be able assist the mission of Christ.

Steiner speaks about the “Nirmanakaya of the Buddha” with all its “Youthful forces” as an intermigling with the astral body of the Nathan Jesus when he was 12. These Youthful forces are a characteristic of Vidar & his work with the formative forces of the etheric.

Thru Spiritual Science we learn it is Vidar, who comes to the aid of the Christ Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, fortifing his etheric body when the Ahrimanic death forces were threatening to kill the physical body of Jesus before Christ’s deed on Golgotha was completed. “An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him”. (Luke 22-43)

To put things into perspective we can think how everything changes; growth/transformation – embraces all beings – evolution is working not only in humanity but in the ‘gods’.

When the Archangel Michael got promoted to Archai, the being known as Vidar, who was once associated with the Northern Mysteries, stepped into Michael’s position as ruling Archangel of the Sun, becoming Universal in his service, cosmopolitan like Michael.

According to Rudolf Steiner Vidar, could have become an Archangel long before that, but he took the path of renunciation, of silence – listening & waiting – building up forces, until 1879 – only then did Vidar take the place vacated by Michael, to work specifically with the Christ during the 2^nd crucifixion in the etheric.

The silent Aesir now speaks.

Vidar’s task is essential for our present age; he creates the etheric sheath for the Being of Christ, so that we can develop a new clairvoyance to perceive & receive this Etheric Christ.

Vidar wants to work with us to achieve the necessary formative forces needed to conquer the many Ahrimanic & Luciferic influences that plague us today – So that we can attain a level of super-sensible acuity to work with Christ in our own etheric bodies.

Vidar will guide us so that we too can become Christ bearers – creating CHRISTOPHOROS ( Χριστόφορος ) in us.

Vidar was with us in the Michael School & the super-sensibile Cultus, & he helps us now – & into the future – to put these lessons into practice with discernment; making us ready to achieve access to all the ethers: warmth, light, sound, life. To consciously employ them – which will help us purify our astral body & transform our etheric body.

We will need these tools to meet the mystery of evil.

In our striving to harmonize our astral & etheric currents, we create new spiritual organs, described by Steiner in ‘How to Know Higher Worlds’ as an ‘etheric lattice’. This gives us a reflective apparatus for our pure thinking – allowing our thoughts to press or imprint directly into our ether body – creating an etheric bridge to the Christ – giving us access to cosmic memory & the gifts from the 5^th sacrifice of Christ ie. the suffocation in the etheric attended by Vidar & the Nathan Soul – this sacrifice was the catalyst for our new clairvoyance!

I keep thinking: How can we, in everyday practical terms, work with Vidar as Guardian of the etheric forces which can brings us together in our various groups striving to live into the Spiritual Science of Christ-Sophia?

We have to be aware that elemental beings inhabit the etheric forms we create – consciously with Love & Light – or unconsciously thru what is adversarial in us…Let us call in the forces of Sophia-Michael-Vidar to fill the etheric with Christic Wisdom.

Vidar as an Archangel for our time speaks with the language of Whitsun – Pentecost – the fires of purification & purpose. And thru the Holy Spirit connected to Anthroposophia we can work with Vidar in our search for the Holy Grail, when we ask the Parzival question of each other, in a true mood of service & enthusiasm, so that when we are ripe we can become co-creators of a new Universe.

Druidic ‘gravestone’ of Vidar found in Niederdollendorf near Colonge

I have gleaned many insights from my work with Sergei Prokofieff’s indications encapsulating the Spiritual Science of Rudolf Steiner in his amazing book: “The Cycle of the year as a Path of Initiation Leading to an Experience of the Christ Being, An Esoteric Study of the Festivals” – the 12th & final chapter on: “The Modern Mysteries of the Etheric Christ” expounding on “The Vidar Mystery”.

a few Highlights:
“This individuality of Wotan or Odin (who Steiner calls an Archangel) is the same as the one who later appeared with the same mission under the name Buddha”. (GA105 August 14 1908)

“When the Buddha appeared to the shepherds in the picture of the ‘heavenly host’, he was not in a physical body but in an astral body. He had assumed a body in which he could still send his influences to the Earth….This body is called a Nirmanakaya’. ” (GA 114, 17 September 1909)

THE MISSION OF FOLK-SOULS, GA 121,, Lecture XI, 17 June 1910, Christiania – Is a powerful study:

“All these details which are set forth in the ‘Twilight of the Gods’, correspond with that which is to appear to humankind in a newer etheric vision, which in reality refers to the future. The Fenris Wolf will still remain. Oh, there is a deep, deep truth concealed in this account of the Fenris Wolf remaining behind in conflict with Odin. In the near future of humankind there will be no danger so great as the tendency to remain satisfied with the old clairvoyance, — instead of developing the new by means of new forces — the danger that humanity might be tempted to remain satisfied with what the old astral clairvoyance of primal ages could give, namely, soul-pictures such as that of the Fenris Wolf. It would also be a severe trial for that which has to grow up in the domain of Anthroposophy, if in that, the tendency towards all sorts of confused, chaotic clairvoyance should arise…

Something very different must come in. And what that is, is, however, known to Celtic-Germanic-Norse mythology — it is well aware of its existence. It knows, that there exists the etheric form in which will embody that which we shall once again see as the etheric form of Christ. And this alone will succeed in driving out the confused clairvoyant power which would bewilder humankind…Vidar, who has kept silence all the time, will overcome the Fenris Wolf. That also is told us in the ‘Twilight of the Gods’.

Anyone who recognizes the importance of Vidar and feels him in their soul, will find that beginning in the twentieth century the capacity can again be given to humanity with which to see Christ.

Vidar, who belongs to us all, will again stand before the human being. Vidar was kept secret in the Mysteries and secret Schools as a god who would receive his mission only in the future.”

We had lively discussions throughout the evening. Then to get us up on our feet to vibrate from our lips & lungs, Lucien Dante Lazar & Ultra-Violet Archer of The Musical initiative: Velsum: Voices of Ancient Futurism brought us a song they wrote for the occasion.

Vidar!
Vidar!
Vidar!
Come upon us.
Vidar!
Vidar!
Vidar!
Give us your trust.

Let us meet you in the threshold.
Let us know you in the Light.
Let us carry forth your banner
In selfless might!

Vidar!
Vidar!
Vidar!
Come upon us.
Vidar!
Vidar!
Vidar!
Give us your trust.

In the flowing of the spirit
From the Northern sickle moon,
We will harvest your new impulse
In joyous truth!

Vidar!
Vidar!
Vidar!
Come upon us.
Vidar!
Vidar!
Vidar!
Give us your trust.

Lucien & Ultra invited us to co-write a 3rd verse; so folks popcorned ideas, & we will work more with that for our next gathering…

Here are the links to the recordings of the song they taught us.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/QLvn4bSTEbjSptZe6

https://photos.app.goo.gl/AGbartxJFFJmNvTf9

https://photos.app.goo.gl/cc8YQTQHZeyGBsaL7

Lucien suggested we end by doing a group poem, each going around saying 1 word. Here is what came forth from our collective efforts for our closing verse: “Speak from the light wherein resolution leads to our hearts fulfillment of the Etheric Christ with courage.”

Vidar at the gates of Shambala by Daniel Ospina

Daniel Ospina the artist of this amazing painting held a meeting at the same time in Ireland where they also read the lecture. The invitation was taken up by other branches including one in Colombia South America. If you dear reader have also taken up this impulse to know Vidar, please share your insights. Let’s keep this knowing going.

Many Thanks to Susan Overhauser, who is one of the brilliant facility members for our AAP training who brought alive for us ‘Vidar as a Guide in the Etheric’. Susan is bringing her research to present at a Conference at the Goetheanum this month!

May the Practicum which we have began into this new Festival we are calling Vidarmas, continue to thrive.

~hag

20 August 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Bella Luna emerging from the Underworld is dancing with the sheath of wheat held by Spica the brightest star in the constellation of Virgo

RUDOLF STEINER’S CALENDAR OF THE SOUL
translated (with added titles) by Roy Sadler
LAMMASTIDE IV
Transition from Summer to Autumn
The Nemesis Of The Lower Self
v20
So I begin to feel my being, I,
who far from world existence
would perish, I, who self-confined,
evolving only on its own ground,
must in itself surender… die.

We must take up the goal of higher self-development.
We must willingly give up what is holding us back,
not a Luciferic, unconscious, sacrifice, but a rise
in freedom to a new sense of self and purpose.
(a message derived from Eloise Krivosheia
in anthroposophyla.org – verse 20).
The mirror verse involves an Ahrimanic temptation.

ALL HALLOWTIDE III
Transition from Autumn to Winter
World Nemesis… or Resurrection?
v33
And so I come to feel the world,
which left without my soul’s communion
would be just frosty, empty life,
and powerless to resurrect in souls,
arise anew in human self-creation,
could in itself alone find only death.

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

Saturday 23 September 2023

Community Prep-Stir / Potluck / Bon-fire

*Autumnal Equinox

*Yom Kippur

*Michaelmas Festival

6 – 8 pm at the Lucchesi-Archer-Ginsberg domicile

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

RSVP Hazel@ReverseRitual.com

30 September 2023 – Michaelmas Festival & Zinniker Farm Day

for more info.

Ptolemaic

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

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

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

~Howen/ Upsplash

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

~Eddie Irizarry

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

~hag

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

Saturday 23 September 2023

Community Prep-Stir / Potluck / Bon-fire

*Autumnal Equinox

*Yom Kippur

*Michaelmas Festival

6 – 8 pm at the Lucchesi-Archer-Ginsberg domicile

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

RSVP Hazel@ReverseRitual.com

30 September 2023 – Michaelmas Festival & Zinniker Farm Day

for more info.

Ides of August

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

~Michel Sittow

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

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

So much to tune into

~hag

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Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

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

August 15th, 1906:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

~hag

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

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

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

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

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

1534 – Jesuit Order Founded

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

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

1769 – Birthday of Napoléon Bonaparte

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Saturday 23 September 2023

Community Prep-Stir / Potluck / Bon-fire

*Autumnal Equinox

*Yom Kippur

*Michaelmas Festival

6 – 8 pm at the Lucchesi-Archer-Ginsberg domicile

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

RSVP Hazel@ReverseRitual.com

Kite-Song

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

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

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

~XOXmom

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

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

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

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

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

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

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

1860 – Birthday of Annie Oakley

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

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

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

1899 – Birthday of Alfred Hitchcock

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