According to Spiritual Science, our rhythmic system is the realm of the Feeling life, the middle pillar between Thinking in our head, & Willing in our limbs; harmonizing & connecting head, hands & heart.

In order to think, to perceive & remember, we breathe into our lungs, & this breath stimulates the warmth of our “I” in the life of our blood. 

We then breathe out into the world again. We populate the world with the product of our thoughts.

What are we breathing into the world?  

Is it light, love & warmth = forces of life? Or depending on our thoughts, are we breathing out darkness, hatred/scorn/division, coldness = forces of death?

Love, is a breathing out, a sharing, embodying our unification with the world. It is connected to the future & to freedom. Breathing out makes us feel free, we are selfless – giving freely, sharing our essence. This gives us a sense for Destiny. We unite with our future as we once united with higher beings in spiritual worlds. We also do it every night when we fall asleep; & we experience this out-breath collectively as part of the bigger cosmic & earthly rhythms, particularly in Spring & Summer.

Breathing in, is a uniting with the Self, & is connected to the past – with memory & necessity. Breathing in helps us to have a consciousness of our Self-hood, & this gives us a sense for Karma. We enter life in the world with a moral memory of our time before birth, what we must do to better ourselves. We do this every Morning too when we awaken. We see in the contraction of Winter.

What is it that lives in the rhythmic system & unites the two processes in a living, warm, loving way? It is The Christ who lives in the rhythmic system since the ‘Turning Point of Time’.

Can you feel The Christ living in the space between breaths, in the space between heart beats?

This Sun Being transforms the necessity of memory & karma – the morality of the gods – into a love for a necessary for freedom, which creates our destiny – the perception & oneness with higher worlds, which is our future.

So it is, that between nerves & senses & limbs, lives our rhythmic system, which is related to our etheric body. It is here that Christ is crucified again & again thru materialistic thoughts, cold feelings, & heartless actions. Our materialistic thoughts are dashed on the shores of our etheric body, dying a death in our physical body, & with it deadening our consciousness of Christ.

What can resurrect our consciousness of Christ again?

Practice SPIRIT-SENSING
In balance of the soul,
Where the surging deeds
Of world-evolving
Unite your own I
With the I of the world;
And you will truly FEEL,
In human soul’s creating.
For the Christ-will encircling us holds sway,
In world rhythms, bestowing
Grace upon souls.

What is Spirit-sensing? It is becoming conscious of what fills the heart with warmth, reverence & wonder – a true heart-thinking – Love, in awe of the Spirit, behind all life.

This moves out again as life – we re-member in Spirit re-calling, good willing, in memory of our oneness in the creator god.

We must work to bestow on our own “I” Spirit Beholding, co-creating with the Holy Spirit.

Living into the rhythms of the Foundation Stone, we become connected to breathing the Spirit in & out, like singing or mindful speech. 

The breath is related to the Word, endeavoring to transform our blood – our “I”; as the Holy Spirit is connected to the Healing Wisdom of Christ; as the Kingdom of God is to the New Jerusalem, of which we are called to co-create – now.

~hag

***

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

May 14, 2020 “To truly know the world, look deeply within your own being; to truly know yourself, take real interest in the world.” Rudolf Steiner

Feast Day of Matthias – According to the Acts of the Apostles, Matthias was chosen to replace Judas Iscariot following the betrayal of Jesus & his subsequent suicide. This calling as an apostle is unique, since his appointment was not made personally by Jesus, since it was after the Ascension, but made before the descent of the Holy Spirit at Whitsun.

1804 – The Lewis and Clark Expedition departs from Camp Dubois & begins its historic journey by traveling up the Missouri River.

1948 – Founding of the State of Israel

1912 – Death-Day of Johan August Strindberg, something of a polymath, Swedish playwright, novelist, poet, essayist & painter, Strindberg was also a telegrapher, theosophist, painter, photographer & alchemist. Rudolf Steiner speaks about him in Karmic Relationships, Volume IV: Lecture II:

“…Thus I made the acquaintance of this doctor, a man of our own day. When I met him I was in the company of another person whom I had known very well for a long time. This other person had always made, I will not say a deep, but a very thorough impression on me. He was exceedingly fond of the society of men who were interested in occultism in the widest possible range, though an occultism somewhat externally conceived. He was fond of relating the views of his many acquaintances on all kinds of occult matters, and especially on the occult connections of what the modern artist should strive for, as a lyric and epic poet, or as a dramatist. Around this person there was what I might call a kind of moral, ethical aura. I am applying the word ‘moral’ to all that is connected with the soul-qualities under the command of the will.

I was paying a visit to him, and in his company I found the other man first mentioned, whom I knew by reputation and respected very highly for his literary and medical career. Everything that took place during this visit made a deep impression on me and impelled me to receive the whole experience into the realm of spiritual research.

Then a very remarkable thing happened. By witnessing the two persons in the company of one another, and by the impression which my new acquaintance made on me — (I had known him for a long time as an eminent literary and medical man and had a great regard for him, but this was the first time that I saw him in the flesh) — by these impressions I gained certain perceptions. To begin with however, it enabled me, not to investigate in any way the connections in life and destiny of my new acquaintance. On the contrary, my seeing them together shed light as it were upon the other one, whom I had long known. And the result was this. — He had lived in ancient Egypt, not in his last, but in one of his former lives on earth. And (this is the peculiar thing) he had been mummified, embalmed as a mummy. Soon afterwards I discovered that the mummy was still in existence. Indeed a long time afterwards I saw the actual mummy. This, then, was the starting-point. But once the line of research had been kindled in connection with the person whom I had long known, it shed its light still farther, and eventually I was enabled to investigate the karmic connections of the other man, my new acquaintance, the doctor. And the following was the result.

As a general rule one is led from one earthly life of a human being to the preceding one. But in this case intuition led far back into ancient Egypt, to a kind of chieftain in ancient Egypt. It was a chieftain who in a certain sense, indeed in a very interesting way, possessed the ancient

Egyptian Initiation, but had become somewhat decadent as an Initiate. In the further course of his life, he began to take his Initiation not very seriously, indeed he even treated it with a certain scorn. Now this man had a servant, who in his turn was extremely serious. This servant was of course not initiated; but both of them together were given the task of embalming mummies and procuring the substances for this purpose, which was no easy matter.

Now especially in the more ancient periods of Egypt, the process of embalming mummies was very complicated and demanded an intimate knowledge of the human being, of the human body. Nay more, of those who had to do the embalming — if they did it legitimately — deep knowledge of the human soul was required. The chieftain of whom I spoke had been initiated for this very work, but he gradually became, in a manner of speaking, frivolous in relation to this, his proper calling. So it came about that in the course of time he betrayed (so they would have put it in the language of the Mysteries) the knowledge he had received through his Initiation to his servant, and the latter gradually proved to be a man who understood the content of Initiation better than the Initiate himself. Thus the servant became the embalmer of mummies, and at length his master did not even trouble to supervise the work, though of course he still took advantage of the social position, etc., which this honourable task involved. But at length his character became such that he no longer enjoyed great respect, and he thus came into various conflicts of life. The servant, on the other hand, worked his way up by degrees to a very, very earnest conception of life, and was thus taken hold of, in a remarkably congenial way, by a kind of Initiation. It was no real Initiation, but it lived within him instinctively. Thus a large number of mummies were mummified under the supervision and co-operation of these two people.

Time went on. The two men passed through the gate of death and underwent the experiences of which I shall speak next time — the experiences in the super-sensible which are connected with the development of karma or destiny. And in the Roman epoch they both of them came back to earthly life. They came back at the very time when the dominion of the Roman Emperors was founded, in the time of Augustus — not exactly, but approximately, in the time of Augustus himself.

The chieftain, who had gradually become a really frivolous Initiate, and who, when he had passed through the gate of death, had felt this as an extraordinarily bitter trial of earthly life, experiencing it in all the bitterness of its effects — we find him again as Julia, the daughter of Augustus. She married Tiberius, the step-son of Augustus, and led a life which to herself seemed justified but was considered, in the Roman society of that time, so immoral that at length both she and Tiberius were banished.

The other man — the servant who had worked his way from the bottom upwards nearly to the grade of an Initiate — was born again at the same time, as the Roman historian Titus Livius, or Livy.

It is most interesting how Livy came to be an historian. In the ancient Egyptian times he had embalmed a large number of mummies. The souls who had lived in the bodies of these mummies — very many of them — were reincarnated as Romans. And certain ones among them were actually reincarnated as the seven Kings of Rome. For the Seven Kings were no mere legendary figures. Going back into the time when the chieftain and his servant had lived in Egypt, we come into a very old Egyptian epoch. Now through a certain law which applies especially to the reincarnation of souls whose bodies have been mummified, these souls were called back again to earth comparatively soon. And the karmic connection of the servant of the chieftain with the souls whose bodies he had embalmed was so intimate, that he had to write the history of the very same human being whom in a previous life he had embalmed, though naturally, he also included the history of many others whom he had not embalmed. Thus Titus Livius became an historian. Now I would like some, indeed as many of you as possible, to take Livy’s Roman History, and, with the knowledge that results from these karmic connections, to receive a real impression of his style. You will see that his peculiar penetration into the human being and his tendency at the same time towards the style of the myth, is akin to that intimate knowledge of man which an embalmer could attain.

We do not perceive such connections until the corresponding researches have been made. But once this has been done, a great light is shed on many things. It is difficult to understand the origin of the peculiar style of Titus Livius, who as it were embalms the human beings whom he describes. For such is his style. Real light is thrown upon it when we point to these connections.

Thus we have the same two people again as Julia and Titus Livius. Then Julia and Livy passed once more through the gate of death. The one soul had had the experience of being an Initiate to a considerable degree, and having then distorted his Initiation by frivolous conduct. He had discovered all the bitterness of the after-effects of this in the life between death and a new birth. He had then undergone a peculiar destiny in his new life on earth as Julia, of which life you may read in history. The result was, that in his next life between death and a new birth (following on the life as Julia) he conceived a strong antipathy to this his incarnation as Julia. And in a curious way this antipathy of his was universalised. For spiritual intuition shows this individuality in his life between death and a new birth as though perpetually crying out: “Would that I had never become a woman! It was the evil that I did in yonder life in ancient Egypt which led me thus to become a woman.”

We can now trace the life of these two individualities still farther. We come into the Middle Ages. We find Livy again as the glad poet and minstrel in the very centre of the Middle Ages. We are astonished to find him thus, for there is no connection between the external callings. But the greatest possible surprises that a human being can possibly have are those that result from a real study of successive lives on earth. The Roman historian, with his style that proceeded from a knowledge of man acquired in embalming mummies, with his style so wonderfully light — we find him again as the poet Walther von der Vogelweide. His style is carried upwards, as it were, upon the wings of lyric poetry.

Walther von der Vogelweide lived in the Tyrol. He had many patrons; and among his many patrons there was one very peculiar man, who was on familiar terms with alchemists of every kind, for there were scores of alchemists at that time, in the Tyrol. This man was himself the owner of a castle, but he frequented all manner of alchemists’ dens and hovels. In so doing he learned extraordinarily much, and (as happened in the case of Paracelsus too) by spending his time in the dens of alchemists he was impelled to study all occult matters very intensely, and gained an unusually intense feeling for occult things. He thus came into the position of rediscovering in the Tyrol what was then only known as a legend, namely, the Castle in the Mountain — the Castle in the Rocks — (which indeed no one would have recognised as such, for it consisted of rocks, it was hollowed out of the rocks) — I mean, the Castle of the Dwarf King Laurin. The daemonic nature in the district of the Castle of the Dwarf King Laurin made a profound impression on him. Thus there was a remarkable combination in this soul — Initiation which he had carried into frivolity, annoyance at having been a woman and having thus been drawn into the sphere of Roman immorality and, at the same time, Roman cant and hypocrisy about morals; and lastly, an intimate knowledge, though still only external, of all manner of alchemical matters, which knowledge he had extended to a clear feeling of the nature-daemons and of other spiritual agencies in nature.

These two men — though it is not recorded in the biography of Walther, nevertheless it is the case — Walther von der Vogelweide and this other man often came together, and Walther received many an influence and impulse from him.

Here we have an instance of what is really a kind of karmic law. We see the same people drawn together again and again, called to the earth again and again simultaneously, complementing one another, living in a kind of mutual contrast. It is interesting once more, to enter into the peculiar lyrical style of Walther. It is as though at last he had grown thoroughly sick of embalming dead mummies and had turned to an entirely different aspect of life. He will no longer have anything to do with dead things, but only with the fullness and joy of life. And yet again, there is a certain undercurrent of pessimism in his work. Feel the style of Walther von der Yogelweide, feel in his style the two preceding earthly lives: feel too, his restless life. It is extraordinarily reminiscent of that life which dawns upon one who spends much of his time with the dead, when many destinies are unburdened in the soul. For such indeed was the case with an embalmer of mummies.

Now we go on. — My further researches into this karmic chain led me at length into the same room where I had visited my old acquaintance, whom I had recognised as an Egyptian mummy. And now I perceived that this very mummy had been embalmed by the other man whom I now met in his room. The whole line of research led me back to this same room. In effect, I found the soul who had passed through the servant of the old Egyptian embalmer, through Titus Livius, through Walther von der Vogelweide (the most celebrated of the Middle High German lyric poets) — I found him again in the doctor of our time, in Ludwig Schleich.(a German surgeon,writer philosopher, poet & painter)

Thus astonishingly do the connections in life appear. Who, with the ordinary consciousness alone, can understand an earthly life? It can only be understood when we know what is there in the foundations of a soul. Theoretically, many people know that deep in the foundations of the soul there are the layers of successive earthly lives. But it becomes real and concrete only when we behold it in a specific instance.

Then inner vision was directed out of this room once more. (For in the case of the other man, who had been mummified by this one, I was led to no more clues — at any rate to no important ones.) On the other hand I now perceived the further soul-pilgrimage of the old chieftain, of Julia, of the discoverer of Laurin’s Castle. For he came back to earth as August Strindberg.

Now I would like you to take the whole life and literary work of August Strindberg and set it against the background which I have just described. See the peculiar misogyny of Strindberg, which is no true misogyny, but proceeds from quite different foundations. Look, too, at all the strange daemonic elements that occur in his works. See his peculiar attraction to all manner of alchemistic and occult arts and artifices. And at length, look at the adventurous life of August Strindberg. You will find how well it stands out against the background which I have described.

Then read the Memoirs of Ludwig Schleich, his relations to August Strindberg, and you will see how all this arises once more against the background of their former earthly lives. Indeed, from the Memoirs of Ludwig Schleich a very remarkable light may suddenly arise, a light truly astonishing. For the man in whose company I first met Ludwig Schleich — the man of whom I said that in his ancient Egyptian life he was mummified by Schleich — it is he of whom Schleich himself tells in his Memoirs that he led him to Strindberg. In a past life, Strindberg and Schleich had worked together upon the corpse. And the soul who dwelt in that body, led them together again.

Thus, all that we have to explain to begin with about repeated earthly lives and the karmic connections in general, becomes real and concrete. Only then do the facts that appear in earthly life become transparent. A single human life on earth is an entire mystery. What else can it be, until seen against the background of the former lives on earth?

http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA238/English/APC1957/19240907p01.html#sthash.phuf3nNA.dpuf

***

Myths will be mutating…Nursery rhymes will scramble, & fairy tales will fracture, allowing a wholeness to be born. Thor, the god of thunder, may make a seek the secrets of life from Snow White. The cow jumping over the moon could turn out to be a fake designed by the CIA. An ugly duckling will lay an egg that Chicken Little claims is irrefutable proof that the question is Love & Love is the answer!…Keep your eyes open for many more new revelations now appearing.

~hag

Dear Friends – Please join me as we complete the cycle of Easter-Tide:

Monday 18 May 2020 11;30 am – noon CDT – Anthroposophy Atlanta Lunch & Learn (Zoom Call) – “Crowning” with Hazel Archer Ginsberg, and Eurythmist Raven Garland –

Is this ‘global pandemic’ entreating us to awaken to the etheric realm that we share in common with the earth? Perhaps the coronavirus is an admonition for us to reconnect to the sun-forces now imbued with the Etheric Christ, waiting to be recognized and employed in these current evolving conditions – an invitation for all of humanity to rise to a higher stage of initiation – a Crowning re-birth.

Time: May 18, 2020, 11:30 am – NOON CDT – 12:30 pm – 1 pm ET – Zoom link: https://us04web.zoom.us/j/77977043476

Meeting ID: 779 7704 3476
Password: HAZEL

May 21st, 7:15 – 9 pm ‘Spirit Beholding’ Ascension Festival 2020 with the CRC

“…Like an evening vapor after the sunset…” ~Novalis –
A free online Ascension Festival with the Central Regional Council –
Ascension Thursday – May 21, 2020 – 7pm – 8:15pm CDT (8pm – 9:15pm EDT)

Join the Central Regional Council and special guest Raven Garland on an artistic exploration of the Mystery of Ascension. We will offer leading thoughts, intermingled with poetry and Eurythmy, to be followed by open conversation.

In the clouds, between the depths of earth and heavenly heights, in the sphere of the etheric realm, we see the primal image of metamorphosis.

Is this global pandemic entreating us to ‘Practice Spirit Beholding’ to awaken to the etheric realm we all share in common with the earth?

We can ‘Practice Spirit Recalling’ to remember we received our etheric body on Old Sun. In practicing ‘Spirit-Sensing’ we may feel perhaps the Coronavirus is an admonition for us to reconnect to the sun-forces now imbued with The Etheric Christ, waiting to be recognized and engaged in the current evolving conditions. This is an invitation for all of humanity to rise to a higher stage of initiation – a global Coronation.

The fulfillment of the secret promise of the Ascension is the Second Coming. Will we choose to participate?

FREE – ALL are Welcome 

This will be a “Zoom” conference call

Option 1. Click link below if you wish to connect through your computer (a headset is recommended)
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86998748216…

The PASSWORD is: Ascension

Option 2. Call in using your telephone.
United States: +1 (346) 248 7799 or +1 (312) 626 6799
Access Code: 869-9874-8216
The PASSWORD is: Ascension

Option 3. You can use a combination of Options 1 and 2 (computer and phone). If you use the phone, please turn off the audio on your computer to prevent audio feedback.

For more info. contact Alberto Loya aloyavaca@peoplepc.com

May Hope Spring Eternal –

The CRC – Marianne Fieber, Alberto Loya, Hazel Archer Ginsberg, David Howerton, Lisa Dalton
Eurythmyst: Raven Garland

***

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

 Online Whitsunday, 31 May 2020 from 10am–11:15am EDT Zoom Call*

Through leading thoughts and conversation we are called to redeem the ether spheres to create an Ecclesia, a chalice for The Sophia. Then the spirit flame can spread out to become what Steiner called a “World Whitsun”, which began in earnest at the Christmas Conference. The Whitsun Festival highlights one of the greatest challenges of being human: placing our individual gifts, in right relationship within the social realm. This challenge is especially strong now during this ‘pandemic’. Our groups striving to know Spiritual Science must work together as a community, to have the possibility to create a new culture where a sacrament is possible in every encounter. Our individual strength is enhanced by weaving our gifts together, kindling our social world in conscious community.

*Join Zoom Meeting on computer https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85927907854 Meeting ID: 859 2790 7854

or Dial in by phone: Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kbEIk8kgk1 Meeting ID: 859 2790 7854

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

Sponsored by the Anthroposophical Society in New Hampshire

For more info. contact deb@anthroposophy.org