After-Image 1 & After-Image 2

After taking our after-image impressions from the altar candles during the ‘Close of Day’ into Night School, the group returned the next day with lively descriptions of their experiences of the Light Ensouled.

At the risk of turning on the fire hose, (which my husband reminds me I tend to do, offering too much information) I spoke a bit about the role of empathy in the cultivation of the after-image, how important it is to initiate the marriage of warmth & light – Love & Wisdom = Christ/Sophia – & how that relates to what Rudolf Steiner brought  thru his Karmic Relationships lectures in August 1924, from Torquay around the coming together of the ‘2 Streams’ – The Arthur Stream = Light, & the Grail Stream = Warmth.

There is a mysterious connection with how the Life-Spirit or etheric essence of the Christ rose up for the earth in the 9^th Century, & at the same time, as a kind of oppositional after-image comes the ‘Abolition of the Spirit’ at the 8th Ecumenical Council of 869, brought on because of the failed unification in the spiritual world of the individualities of Aristotle & Alexander, with Harun al Rashed & his counselor.  

I prefaced this with an overview of the 4 main Christian Festivals – How at Easter we see a redemption of the physical body thru the overcoming of Death with the Resurrection of Christ, leading in the future to the achievement of what Spiritual Science calls The ‘Spirit-Human.’ The Transfiguration & Ascension brings the possibility for the rescuing of our Etheric Body – ‘Life-Spirit’. And with the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the purification of our Astral Body, to bring us ‘Spirit-Self’.  

In our present age, one of the many tasks of humaity, besides recognizing evil, is to work with the after-image so that, like the vision of The Transfiguration & Ascension, we can enliven our Life-Body, allowing us to meet the Etheric Christ.

At this point we got up to do the hygienic eurythmy gestures for Faith, Love & Hope – Eurythmy being a powerful way to strengthen our etheric body.

I brought a Steiner verse to pair with the Love A gesture:

“In purest outpoured light
shimmers the godhead of the world.

In purest Love towards all that lives
Outpours the godhood of my soul

I rest within the godhead of the world
There shall I find myself
Within the godhead of the world.”

After sharing our reflections about the eurythmy, I spoke about how when Paul had his Damascus Experience of the Etheric Christ, he was struck blind for 3 days. So much here to contemplate in regards our theme eh…?

In “Learning to Experience the Etheric World, Empathy, the After-Image & a New Social Ethic” Baruch Urieli has a short chapter called: ‘The Archetype of the After-Image’ – where he fills out the picture of Mary Magdalene’s deed in anointing the feet & head of Christ – & how on Easter morning she looks into the empty tomb to see 2 Light-Beings, sitting at the foot & head. When the angels ask her why she is weeping, she turns & sees Jesus as the Gardener (the plant Kingdom is connected to the etheric realm). When he speaks her name, she turns once more, & recognizes Christ in his risen Life-body.

These events show how empathy can bring on the after-image – how the love & compassion of Mary Magdalene is an example of the ‘New Power of Will’ (The New Yoga Will which uses light not air) – which enables the opening of the etheric space to inner vision. Urieli: “For that further step to happen we must ‘Turn once more’ – we must ‘Re-turn’ to that space which is the home of our “I Am”, the space where our name resounds.”

In 1923 Rudolf Steiner gave medical student Helene von Grunelius ‘The Warmth Meditation” & described it “as the way for medical practitioners to behold the etheric Christ.”

“You detect at this point what life, which has poured into the world, actually is. Where can the source of this life be found? It can be found in what stirs the moral ideals and prompts us to say that if we allow ourselves to be filled by the light of moral ideals today, they will bear life, matter, and light and create worlds. We carry that world-creating element, and the moral ideal is the source of all that creates worlds.” ~Rudolf Steiner

~Brad Huck

This idea of creating ‘The New Jerusalem‘ is the basis of my work with an initiative that I call The ‘10:10 Thought-Seed’ Imagination – ‘Project Egregore’ – which is a collective ‘Thought-Form’ of Good Will – a “key-call” to the Spiritual powers on the Inner Planes, to enlist their aid in the graceful unfolding of our highest human destiny.

Through our continued, & consistent intention to visualize the Human Being as a Star & the Earth as a Sun, our positive egregore grows in the etheric realm of formative forces allowing us to meet & work with Christ in His Life-Body.

Our goal is to co-create a new ‘Group-Soul United in Christ’ thru our daily 10:10 contemplation.

For the practicum we all gazed into the beeswax candle set upon a pillar while I spoke the Meditative Thought-Seed many have been working with. In-between verses we shut our eyes to experience the after-image.

Yellow – For Thinking:
“When I think light, my soul shines,
When my soul shines, the earth is a star,
When the earth is a star, then I am, a true human being”.
~Herbert Hahn

Red – For Feeling:
When I feel Love, my heart sings
When my heart sings, the Earth resounds
When the Earth resounds, I am a true I AM

Blue – For Willing:
When I will life, my hands help
When my hands help, the Earth heals
When the Earth heals, I am a free human being

Another way to access the Etheric World, & a powerful way of strengthening our Life-Body, is to speak meditative verses, like I shared yesterday, backwards – since everything in the spiritual world is revealed thru its reversal –

Thinking – In Reverse:
I Am a True Human Being
The Earth is a Star
My Soul Shines
I Think Light

Feeling – In Reverse:
I Am a True I Am
The Earth Resounds
My Heart Sings
I feel Love

Willing – In Reverse:
I Am a Free Human Being
The Earth Heals
My Hands Help
I Will Life

Tomorrow I will share my powerful after-image experience at the altar.

Until soon

~hag

13 July 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”: On the mornings of July 13 and 14, 2023, the waning crescent moon will pass the Pleiades star cluster, one of the many gems of Taurus the Bull. The bright orange star Aldebaran will shine nearby. Also, look for the glow of earthshine on the darkened portion of the moon. ~Chart via John Jardine Goss/ EarthSky.

In conjunction with our after-image theme of seeing into the Etheric we have Today – the anniversary of the third Apparition of Our Lady of Fatima on Friday, July 13, 1917. The three secrets involve Hell, World War I & World War II.

Our Lady told the children that to save the sinners from hell, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to Her Immaculate Heart. She asked for the consecration of Russia to Her Immaculate Heart, & the Communion of Reparation on the First Saturdays.

From the Fourth Memoir: The Story of the Apparitions by Lucia Santos the oldest of the 3 children:

‘A few moments after arriving at the Cova da Iria, near the holmoak, where a large number of people were praying the Rosary, we saw the flash of light once more, and a moment later Our Lady appeared on the holmoak.

— Your Grace, what do you want of me? — I asked.

— I want you to come here on the 13th of next month, to continue to pray the Rosary every day in honour of Our Lady of the Rosary, in order to obtain peace for the world and the end of the war, because only she can help you.

— I would like to ask you to tell us who you are, and to work a miracle so that everybody will believe that you are appearing to us.

— Continue to come here every month. In October, I will tell you who I am and what I want, and I will perform a miracle for all to see and believe.

I then made some requests, but I cannot recall now just what they were. What I do remember is that Our Lady said it was necessary for such people to pray the Rosary in order to obtain these graces during the year. And she continued:

— Sacrifice yourselves for sinners, and say many times, especially whenever you make some sacrifice: O Jesus, it is for love of You, for the conversion of sinners, and in reparation (порт. reparação) for the sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

As Our Lady spoke these last words, she opened her hands once more, as she had done during the two previous months. The rays of light seemed to penetrate the earth, and we saw as it were a sea of fire. Plunged in this fire were demons and souls in human form, like transparent burning embers, all blackened or burnished bronze, floating about in the conflagration, now raised into the air by the flames that issued from within themselves together with great clouds of smoke now falling back on every side like sparks in huge fires, without weight or equilibrium, amid shrieks and groans of pain and despair, which horrified us and made us tremble with fear. (It must have been this sight which caused me to cry out, as people say they heard me). The demons could be distinguished by their terrifying and repellent likeness to frightful and unknown animals, black and transparent like burning coals. Terrified and as if to plead for succour, we looked up at Our Lady, who said to us, so kindly and so sadly:

— You have seen hell where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion (port. a devoção) to my Immaculate Heart. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace. The war is going to end; but if people do not cease offending God, a worse one will break out during the pontificate of Pius XI. When you see a night illumined by an unknown light, know that this is the great sign given you by God that he is about to punish the world for its crimes, by means of war, famine, and persecutions of the Church and of the Holy Father.

— To prevent this, I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, and the Communion of Reparation (port. a Comunhão reparadora) on the First Saturdays. If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, various nations will be annihilated. In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, and she will be converted, and a period of peace will be granted to the world. In Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved; etc… Do not tell this to anybody. Francisco, yes, you may tell him.

— When you pray the Rosary, say after each mystery: O my Jesus, forgive us, save us from the fire of hell. Lead all souls to Heaven, especially those who are most in need.

After this, there was a moment of silence, and then I asked:

— Your Grace, is there anything more that you want of me?

— No, I do not want anything more of you today.

Then, as before Our Lady began to ascend towards the east, until she finally disappeared in the immense distance of the firmament’.

1298 – Deathday of Blessed Jacobus de Varagine, an Italian chronicler & archbishop of Genoa. He was the author, of Legenda Aurea, the Golden Legend, a collection of hagiographies of the legendary lives of saints of the Middle Ages. The Golden Legend is the source of the Rose Cross Meditation that Rudolf Steiner often quoted.

1527 – Birthday of John Dee, English-Welsh mathematician, astronomer, & astrologer & occultist

1727 – The founding of The Herrnhuter Brotherhood, The Moravian Church – Unitas Fratrum – Unity of the Brethren – predating the Protestant Reformation by a century, it was really the 1^st  Protestant Church, with its heritage dating back to the Bohemian Reformation in the fifteenth century. It places a high value on ecumenism, personal piety, music -communio sub utraque specie, married priests, & eliminating indulgences & the idea of Purgatory. The Church’s emblem is the Lamb of God (Agnus Dei) with the flag of victory, surrounded by the Latin inscription: Vicit agnus noster, eum sequamur “Our Lamb has conquered, let us follow Him”

1889 – Deathday of Robert Hamerling an Austrian poet. Rudolf Steiner gave his funeral address.  http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA154/English/AP1990/19140426p01.html

The 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica characterizes Hamerling as one of the most remarkable poets of the modern Austrian school, describing his imagination as rich & his poems as full of life & color. In his most popular poem, Ahasver in Rom (1866), the emperor Nero is the central figure. Among his other works, Venus im Exil (1858); Der König von Sion (1869), characterized as a masterpiece; Die sieben Todsünden (1872) Blätter im Winde (1887); Homunculus (1888); Amor und Psyche (1882). His novel, Aspasia (1876), a finely-drawn description of the Periclean age, & his tragedy Danton und Robespierre (1870), showed Hamerling’s genius.

In Karmic Relationships Vol. 2, lecture 6, Steiner describes him as a pupil of Plato in an earlier incarnation.

1963 – Deathday of Albert Steffen a poet, painter, dramatist, essayist,& novelist. He joined the Anthroposophical Society in 1912 & became its president after the death of its founder, Rudolf Steiner, in 1925. Steffen was chief editor of the society’s journal, Das Goetheanum, from 1921-1963

His earliest works, predating his encounter with anthroposophy, already manifest a spiritual awareness. His later works, which reflect a vision of the world permeated by metaphysical powers of good & evil, draw on a wide range of esoteric European & Asian traditions

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

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

~Pablo Picasso

Yesterday in After-Image 1 we explored how in working with complementary colors, the after-image gives us a sense of balance, a unity with everything around us. When we see yellow for instance, we can realize that red & blue are also working to bring us the after-image of violet.

We can take this further into the human realm of relationships – allowing us to sense the life of the community as a living organism. When we see a ‘bad’ trait in a fellow human being, what would it be like to visualize the complementary trait which is also there waiting to be recognized?

This is how we can consciously establish healthy social impulses to balance those anti-social tendencies which are so strong in us these days.

And this is what we need to work with to prepare for our future evolution which wants us to make every human encounter a sacrament.

This also opens us to receive a perception of what Steiner describes in EARTHLY DEATH AND COSMIC LIFE as “the ‘light’ which is thrown out beyond death into our evolution between death and rebirth, which we perceive and from which we build our karma”.

I guess for me the biggest “I” opener is the idea set forth by Steiner that what we take in thru our eyes becomes an objective process in that the after-image impresses itself thru us into the cosmic ethers!

We experience an imprint from our sense impressions which effects not only our personal reality but becomes an imprint on the world.

Our impressions take hold of our etheric body, retaining it as a memory picture. This is transmitted into the outer ether of the cosmos & is inscribed there. “What you remember you inscribe in the cosmic ether, & the cosmic ether summons it forth in you again like the impress of a seal when you call it to mind. Memory is no mere personal affair; through it you relate yourself to the entire universe.” ~Rudolf Steiner, 7 Dec. 1919, The Mission of Michael, the Revelation of the Secrets of Man’s Being

~Rita De Cassia Perez

The manifestation of Christ in the Etheric world is a meeting with humanity waiting to happen. In “From Jesus to Christ” Steiner suggests our empathic process advances the etheric light – that it is our own Christened etheric activity which lights up this realm in which the Christ in a Life-Body is present. Our eyes take in light; when we spiritualize it thru our moral heart-thinking, we shed light back into the etheric realm – revealing the Christ.

So the question & challenge becomes: How are we using our sense impressions? What are we imprinting into our own Life-Body AND into the Life-Body of the Universe we all share? Are we revealing the Christ in us – or are we letting the adversarial forces devour the light thru our unconsciousness..?

The assignment for night school was to take Steiner’s indications about gazing into a candle flame to contemplate the after-image, & applying this at the ‘Close of Day’, using the altar candles during the service, & to report back at our next session…

You can take on this assignment at home with any candle…What do you perceive?

~hag

12 July 2023 – Speaking with the Stars”: Behold the heavens on this my Natal Return! I was born at 4:57…xox

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

100 BC – Birthday of Julius Caesar, Roman politician & general

Feast Day of St. Veronica – According tradition, Veronica was moved with sympathy when she saw Jesus carrying his cross to Golgotha & gave him her veil that he might wipe his forehead. Jesus accepted the offering, held it to his face, & then handed it back to her—the image of his face miraculously impressed upon it.

This piece of cloth became known as the Veil of Veronica.The name “Veronica” itself is a Latinisation of Berenice (Greek: Βερενίκη, Berenikē, with a secondary form Beronike), a Macedonian name, meaning “bearer of victory”. The woman who offered her veil to Jesus was known by this name in the Byzantine East, but in the Latin West the name took a life of its own as a designation for a relic venerated in Rome as the true image of Jesus. Since the Latin word for “true” or “authentic” happens to be vera, the theory emerged that the name itself is derived from the Latin phrase “true image”, vera icon (one Latin word for image is icon, derived from Greek: εικόνα, eikona). In the 13th-century text & also in some later sources the term Veronica was used for the veil, not the person, but for centuries it has been better known as the name of the woman.

Eusebius in his Historia Ecclesiastica (vii 18) tells how at Caesarea Philippi lived the woman whom Christ healed of an issue of blood (Matthew 9:20-22). Legend was not long in providing the woman of the Gospel with a name. In the West she was identified with Martha of Bethany; in the East she was called Berenike, or Beronike, the name appearing in as early a work as the “Acta Pilati”, the most ancient form of which goes back to the fourth century. The fanciful derivation of the name Veronica from the words Vera Icon (eikon) “true image” dates back to the “Otia Imperialia” (iii 25) of Gervase of Tilbury (fl. 1211), who says: “Est ergo Veronica pictura Domini vera” (translated: “The Veronica is, therefore, a true picture of the Lord.”)

1804 – Former United States Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton dies after being shot in a pistol duel by Vice President Aaron Burr

1865- the Theosophical Society General Secretary in Paris A.Sauerwein introdues Mabel Collins to Rudolf Steiner

1895 – Birthday of Buckminster Fuller, American architect & engineer, designed the Montreal Biosphère

1895 – Birthday of Oscar Hammerstein II, American director, producer, & songwriter

1904 – Birthday of Pablo Neruda, Chilean poet & diplomat, Nobel Prize laureate

1948 – Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion orders the expulsion of Palestinians from the towns of Lod and Ramla.

1967 – The ‘Newark riot’ was one of 159 race riots that swept cities in the United States during the “Long Hot Summer of 1967”. This riot occurred between July 12 & July 17, 1967. Over the four days of rioting, looting, & property destruction, 26 people died & hundreds were injured.

Virtue for July – Selflessness becomes catharsis
(June 21 to July 21)

Such true perseverance is selfless. True selflessness is equally far removed from hardening and dissolution. Adulating dependency is no less self-centered than rigid consistence on one’s own prejudices and interests. True selflessness defends neither the narrowness of the subjective personality nor loses itself in other people and things. It is rather the golden mean between these two deviations and temptations. Not obscured by the selfishness of fear or by that of greed, it is therefore pure. Purification is the path that overcomes fear through the truth that unites all beings and through an inner life that liberates one from the dependency of desire, accepts the twists and turns of fate. This selflessness that through considerateness and renunciation finds itself, is self-assured. With his idea of purification (catharsis) Aristotle denotes initiation into the path of destiny as being the task of the poet. This catharsis is achieved by overcoming and transforming the dangers that threaten the human center.
Selflessness, as the path to the human center, becomes catharsis.
A meditation on such selflessness is the saying: “I am the way, the truth and the life; no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me.”

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

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

~Christian Schoel

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Everyone in our group was amazed.

The idea of point & periphery was explored.

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

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

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

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

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

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

~hag

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

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day (RSarchives) 

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

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

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

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

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

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