16 July 2018 – Astro-Weather: Bella Luna & Venus the goddess of love in close conjunction, paired dramatically in the west during twilight. The crescent Moon shines on the upper left of Venus. Its sunlit bulge points down almost straight toward Venus – exactly straight toward the Sun.

Also, look a little to their lower right for Regulus twinkling away. You may also be able to catch Mercury much farther lower right. A line from Venus through Regulus points straight to Mercury.

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Pietro Novelli

Feast Day of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, the title given to the Blessed Virgin Mary in her role as patroness of the Carmelite Order, Christian hermits living in the Holy Land during the late 12th & early to mid-13th century. They built in the midst of their hermitages a chapel which they dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, whom they conceived of in chivalric terms as the “Lady of the place.” Our Lady of Mount Carmel was adopted in the 19th century as the patron saint of Chile, in South America.

Since the 15th century, popular devotion to Our Lady of Mount Carmel has centered on the Scapular, a sacramental associated with promises of Mary’s special aid for the salvation of the devoted wearer. Since the Middle Ages, Our Lady of Mount Carmel has been related to Purgatory, where souls are purged of sins in the fires. In some images, she is portrayed as accompanied with angels and souls wearing Brown Scapulars, who plead for her mediation.

Our Lady of Mount Carmel was seen in the apparitions of Cova da Iria in Fátima, Portugal, by Lúcia Santos & her co-visionary companions Jacinta & Francisco Marto & as many as 70,000 witnesses of the extraordinary events during the Miracle of the Sun. She also appeared to Saint Simon Stock to whom she gave the Brown Scapular. The Garabandal apparitions, in Spain, were reported to be images of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel. Also in Acquafondata, Italy, the apparition of the Virgin of Mount Carmel, was seen on July 16, 1841. There is still today a small sanctuary on the site.

622 – Mohammed’s flight from Mecca, which came to determine the beginning of the Islamic calendar. He hid in a cave where a spiders web quickly grew over the entrance so that the enemy was fooled into thinking he wasn’t there.

1054 – Three Roman legates break relations between Western & Eastern Christian Churches through the act of placing an invalidly-issued Papal bull of Excommunication on the altar of Hagia Sophia during Saturday afternoon divine liturgy. Historians frequently describe the event as the start of the East–West Schism.

1879 – Birthday of Elisabeth Vreed – Dutch philosopher, mathematician, astronomer, astrologer & anthroposopher. Elisabeth Vreede came into contact with Theosophy in her home growing up. She was interested early on in the starry sky, read the works of Camille Flammarion & learned French at the same time. At the University of Leyden she studied mathematics, astronomy, philosophy (especially Hegel) & Sanskrit. She was also actively involved in student life, founding a boat club, & was a council member of the students’ union.

Her first meeting with Rudolf Steiner took place at the Theosophical Congress in London in 1903. Vreede was leader of the mathematics & astronomy sections in the Goetheanum in Dornach from 1926 till 1935. In her capacity as leader of the Mathematical-Astronomical Section she wrote a monthly letter, then available by subscription, about both modern astronomy & classical astrology in the light of spiritual science. The letters included explanations of the fundamentals of astronomy & discussions of astrology in the modern world, with reference to such topics as the precession of the equinoxes, comets, solar & lunar eclipses, & the meaning of the Christian holidays such as Easter & Whitsun. The Letters in English translation were published in 2007 with the title Astronomy and Spiritual Science.

In 1935 the separation within the Anthroposophical Society took place & she was expelled from the executive council & excluded along with her long-time friend & co-member, Dr. Ita Wegman from the board of directors. She was also cut off from the observatory & archives that she herself helped assemble.

The last years of her life became more lonely. She was cut off from her friends abroad by the War. The death of Ita Wegman at the beginning of March, 1943, was a great shock for her.

Rudolf Steiner said of her: ‘this individuality does not wish to be recognized …’ Elisabeth Knottenbelt in her memoirs describes statements about her: that ‘she incarnated too early’ for the sake of serving Rudolf Steiner. “for this task [the work with Rudolf Steiner] she had assumed the sacrifice of a premature incarnation. One who, for the sake of a spiritual mission, comes in this way to earth too early must forego a lot. To a great extent one leaves one’s karmic circle of human beings behind in the spiritual word. Her life was thus really a quite lonely one, only a few persons were grouped around her without any real connection.”

Here is a quote from a letter written by her prior to her removal from the executive council: “The Being of Anthroposophy – I myself have always felt it as a spiritual being newly created by Dr. Steiner, as it were the first hierarchical Being that men have begotten, quite young and still underdeveloped, as is the case with a child—a Being that must now begin to develop further through our common work as a ‘community of knowledge’, and with the cooperation of its creator from the spiritual world. Just for this reason I find it so painful when attacks are continually made against part of the active members such as to exclude them from the work, from creating together the Being of Anthroposophy.”

Read her biography from the Astrosophy Research Center

1942 – Holocaust: Vel’ d’Hiv Roundup.The government of Vichy France orders the mass arrest of 13,152 Jews who are held at the Winter Velodrome in Paris before deportation to Auschwitz.

1945 – Manhattan Project: The Atomic Age begins when the United States successfully detonates a plutonium-based test nuclear weapon near Alamogordo, New Mexico.

1948 – The city of Nazareth, revered by Christians as the hometown of Jesus, capitulates to Israeli troops during Operation Dekel, the largest offensive by Israeli forces in the north of Palestine in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. Israeli aircraft bombed Saffuriya village & caused panic among the population; many of the villagers fled northwards toward Lebanon, others found shelter in Nazareth, leaving about 100 elderly people behind. Nazareth surrendered to the Israelis.

Palestinian Arab villages captured in Operation Dekel

Name	Population[2]	Dates	Brigade	Notes
Kuwaykat	1,050	9	7th Armoured Brigade and Carmeli Brigade	Village depopulated and destroyed
Kafr Yasif	1,057 (1931)	10	Carmeli Brigade	Most of Muslim population as well as refugees from other villages deported. Town exists today.
Khirbat Jiddin	1,500	10–11		Village and bedouin camps depopulated and destroyed.
Julis	n/a (Druze)	8–14		Population allowed to remain in their homes. Town exists today.
Al-Makr	n/a	8–14		Town exists today.
I’billin	1,057	8–14		Muslim population expelled. Town exists today.
Shefa-‘Amr	3,640	8–14	7th Armoured Brigade and Carmeli Brigade	Muslim population fled under bombardmennt. Town exists today as a city.
Kabul	457 (1931)	15	7th Armoured Brigade	Villagers remained. Town exists today.
Al-Mujaydil	1900	15	Golani Brigade	Village completely emptied and razed to the ground.
Ma’lul	690	15		Village depopulated and destroyed.
Saffuriya	4,000	16	7th Armoured Brigade[3] and Carmeli Brigade	Villagers expelled. Hundreds of returnees expelled November 1948 and January 1949. Nothing remains.
Nazareth	18,000	16	Carmeli Brigade	Population allowed to remain. Town exists today.
Nimrin	320	17		Village depopulated and destroyed.
Lubya	2,370	17		Villagers not allowed to return. Village buildings destroyed in 1960s.
Hittin	1,190	17	Golani Brigade	Villagers fled before the attack and then prevented from returning. Village destroyed.
Amqa	1,240	15–16	7th Armoured Brigade and Carmeli Brigade	Village depopulated and destroyed.
ad-Damun	1,310	15–16	7th Armoured Brigade	Village bombarded, population expelled and buildings destroyed.
Tamra,		15–18	7th Armoured Brigade	Villagers evacuated 20 May. Re-populated with exiles from neighbouring villages.
Mi’ar	770	15–18	7th Armoured Brigade	Villagers fled from advancing soldiers. Village destroyed.
Yafa	833 (1931)	15–18		Town exists today.
Uzeir	150	15–18		Village exists today.
Kfar Kanna	1,175 (1922)	15–18	7th Armoured Brigade	Town exists today.
Rummana	590	15–18		Village exists today.
Bu’eina		15–18		Town exists today.
Al-Ruways	330	18	7th Armoured Brigade	Villagers fled under bombardment and buildings destroyed. Land now used by kibbutz Yas’ur.
Tur’an	1,350	18		Empty houses used for refugees expelled from other villages. Town exists today.
Nahf	200 (1881)	18	7th Armoured Brigade	Population allowed to remain. Town exists today.
Al-Birwa	1,460	18		Units of ALA involved in defending the village. After capture villagers were prevented from returning and the village was destroyed.
Sha’b	1,740	19		Villagers expelled, later replaced by exiles from other villages.

1969 –Apollo 11, the first mission to land astronauts on the Moon, is launched from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Kennedy, Florida. The 1st ‘moomwalk’ 20 July 1969.

1999 – John F. Kennedy Jr., piloting a Piper Saratoga aircraft, dies when his plane crashes into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard. His wife, Carolyn Bassette  & sister-in-law are also killed

2007 – An earthquake of magnitude 6.8 & 6.6 aftershock occurs off the Niigata coast of Japan killing 280 people, injuring at least 5800 & damaging a nuclear power plant.

2014 – Deathday of Ruth Zinniker – The biodynamic movement owes so much to Ruth and the whole Zinniker family. Their farm has been a source of inspiration for thousands of people, many of whom came there to work as apprentices when they were young people and have gone on to be important leaders in the biodynamic movement. Ruth had a place in her heart for all these people and many others. She warmed the movement with her social gesture and her fiery enthusiasm. Thank you dear Ruth, thank you Zinniker family, for all you have given to help seed the biodynamic movement in North America. — Robert Karp

***

Odilon Redon

POD (Poem Of the day)

I traveled a million years
To reach the flowers in my hand
~hag

***

Vincent van Gogh

“Man only looks up to the Sun in the right way (even if it be but in his mind) when, as he gazes upwards, he forgets Space and considers Time alone. For in truth, the Sun does not only radiate light, it radiates Space itself, and when we are looking into the Sun we are looking out of Space into the world of Time. The Sun is the unique star that it is because when we gaze into the Sun we are looking out of Space. And from that world, outside of Space, Christ came to men. At the time when Christianity was founded by Christ on Earth, man had been all too long restricted to the mere Ex Deo Nascimur, he had become altogether bound up in it, he had become a Space-being pure and simple. The reason why it is so hard for us to understand the traditions of primeval epochs, when we go back to them with the consciousness of present-day civilisation, is that they always had in mind Space, and not the world of Time. They regarded the world of Time only as an appendage of the world of Space”. ~Rudolf Steiner. Source : https://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/AscenPent/19240604p01.html

***

`

How To Know, Confront, and Work with Evil

A Weekend Workshop with Rev. Bastiaan Baan

At the Christian Community, 2135 W. Wilson Chicago, Il. 60625

Saturday 4 August 2018, 10 am – 8 pm

Sunday 5 August 2018, 11:45am – 5 pm

Fee is a Sliding Scale $25 – $100

Please RSVP to Rev. Ann Burfeind 

***

by Grace Kahn

20 August 2018 ~MORAL MONDAY~ CHICAGO 7 pm – 9 pm 

“When The Trees Melt Away In A Sun Soaked Cotton Dream”

A Going Going Gone Party for the CWS Class of 2018 – an Art Exhibit with Musical Performances from the Youth at Elderberries Chicago 4251 N. Lincoln Ave.

Illustrations by Grace Kahn, Work by Shanti Rogers, Art booth by Liz Rosu-Rosenberg

Songs from “Beyond Blue and Red” by Ultra-Violet Archer 

Chance Schneider & DJ Grapefruit Effect

$10 Donation –MORE or less (Youth under 21 FREE)

***

How We Will: Organizing a Bare Bones Threefold Cultural Revolution

Hosted by Urban First Aid – Art As Medicine & The Elderberries 3Fold Cafe Chicago 4251 N Lincoln Ave, Chicago, IL 60618-2953, United States

31 Aug. 2018 at 12 PM to 4 Sep. 2018 at 2 PM

REGISTER for How We Will 2018

Contributors 

The Cultural Revolution continues! Organizing for systemic change – a separation of powers into three different spheres of action:
Culture – Economics – Political
Freedom – Kinship – Equality

2018 is a pivotal year in the United States and also around the world. We will step into organizing the three spheres particularly, through what lives already in our community and then seeking beyond to allies and partners.

Step by step organizing strategies and tools will be at the forefront of this bare bones session of How We Will – 3folding our Cultural Revolution. We will strategize together as to how to bring about a community of like-minded organizations working in agriculture, education, medicine, art and more which can open up a conversation on Rudolf Steiner’s work for a threefold consideration.

First up Kait Zielger for our How We Will: Threefolding our Cultural Revolution strategy sessions. Mid July Kait will be at the Goetheanum in Dornach where she will present her work on Theory U at the Youth Section gathering and then will co present with Gerald Haefner at YIP in September.

Elizabeth Roosevelt Weeks will co lead a conversations throughout the Labor Day weekend in Chicago: Periphery & Center – The work at Elderberries Threefold Cafe in Hollywood has specifically been around how to create a culture of selflessness where we make room to the ninth degree for the other.

Rudolf Steiner shares: ‘He who would be a true member should strive in the deepest places of his soul for inner tolerance towards his fellow-men. To understand one’s fellow-man ? even where he thinks and does things which one would not like to think and do oneself ? this should be the ideal.’

Strategizing a way forward no matter what country you live in! Nathaniel Williams and his community are working on a new form of economics in their upstate New York neighborhood and we are aiming to hear about this and to really break down into groups along the lines of the Economic, Cultural and Political spheres to find a way forward.

Tech: As tool for Revolutionwith  Johannes Kronenberg

How can we tame/domesticate the recently discovered ‘wild animal’ called (digital)technology? The wild beast that eats an average of 8 hours of our time a day and makes us live in a blurry cloud. How can it truly serve us instead of the other way around? And how to find a balance between this digital fragmented cloud and ‘real life’ through the ‘Leading Thoughts’ of Rudolf Steiner’?

In times like this, when ALL is falling down around us, we need a full on systemic change. Our time is asking for a separation of powers where the rights gained are not just taken away at whim by whoever is ‘in charge of’ the government and depending on their own political/economic/religious ideology.

The way we are battling for our rights is putting money at the forefront versus our values. We need our values in the front first. What are our values as citizens of the United States? Do we value human beings and the earth and all living beings or do we not? It feels like the last ball has dropped and the judiciary can really no longer do it’s job as it’s the last bastion that would uphold Equality and it is so polarized along political lines that it no longer serves rather it serves the smallest percentage of human beings who are able to buy more Rights for themselves. In a Threefold system you cannot buy more Rights for yourself as there is no money in politics.

Economic system is dead. Here we would raise up a Beloved Community

Political system is dead. Here we would establish in our societal laws Equal Rights for all

Civil Society yet to be born. here we would honor Freedom of the individual.

Not about Socialism or Communism or Capitalism but a time for a fourth way which honors moving away for me me me and me and mine a 4.0 Economy – from Ego to Eco.

Our team here in Hollywood will also share the tools we have learned working with the Poor People’s Campaign around Fusion Coalitions.

More Presenters TBA so stay tuned

We will also be building out the cafe space two weeks before and two weeks after for those who can stay and help get this Elderberries 3Fold Cafe Chicago up and running!

WE NEED HOUSING!

For more info. Contact Frank Agrama

***

From Necessity to Freedom – The Evolution of Human Consciousness, Social Sculpture & Experiential Discourse with Hazel Archer Ginsberg

Saturday 8 September 2018 at the Los Angeles Branch 110 Martin Alley, Pasadena, CA 91105. Workshop 10 am – 5 pm

How can I Co-Create with Destiny, to spin the thread of my life with integrity, to heal and clear the collective karma, & achieve my True Becoming?

From the vaporous cleft of Mount Parnassus, and the birth place of Greek Philosophy, to Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel, and the Holy Grail – From Prophesy to Warning, from Fate to Karma, From Destiny to Free Will. 

What is YOUR life Question?

10 am – Doors Open

10:30 am – Explore the legends of The Greek Moirae and the Nordic Norns, the Orphic Hymn and the Prose Poem Edda

11:30 –Song Circle – To call in and to cut away

12:15 pm – Lunch

1:30 pm – Scrying with the Sibyls – The Prophets and the Sistine Chapel…The evolving human consciousness…

2:30 pm – Socratic Questioning – You have to ask the right question to get the right answer

3:15 pm – Break

3:30pm – Once Upon A Time NOW – The new story

4 pm – Weaving Past, Present and Future

4:30 pm – Rudolf Steiner’s poem: DESTINY

5 pm – End

Hazel Archer Ginsberg, Festivals Coordinator & Council Member of The Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago, The Traveling Speakers Program, and the Central Regional Council of The Anthroposophical Society, Trans-denominational Minister and founder of ‘Reverse Ritual’ – ‘Understanding Anthroposophy Through the Rhythms of the Year’

***

Poetic Imagination, Metamorphosis and the Evolution of Consciousness with Luke Fischer

Sunday 16 September 2018, 2 – 4pm

In this lecture, poet and philosopher, Dr Luke Fischer will discuss ways in which the poetry and thought of Goethe, Rilke, Barfield, and Steiner contribute to an understanding of the evolution of consciousness and of the particular significance of poetic imagination. He will also shed light on how his own poetic and philosophical writings have addressed these topics.

Poetry Reading and Piano Recital

Poet and philosopher, Luke Fischer, will share poems from his poetry collections A Personal History of Vision (UWAP Poetry, 2017) and Paths of Flight (Black Pepper, 2013). Pianist Ryan Senger will perform classical piano works.

Bio: Luke Fischer is a poet, philosopher, and writer. His books include the poetry collections A Personal History of Vision (UWAP Poetry, 2017) and Paths of Flight (Black Pepper, 2013), the monograph The Poet as Phenomenologist: Rilke and the New Poems (Bloomsbury, 2015), and the children’s book The Blue Forest (Lindisfarne Books, 2015). He has co-edited a number of works, including a special section of the Goethe Yearbook (2015) on “Goethe and Environmentalism.” He won the 2012 Overland Judith Wright Poetry Prize and his poems have been anthologized in the Best Australian Poems (2014, 2015, and 2017). He holds a PhD in philosophy and is an honorary associate of the University of Sydney, Australia. For more information see: www.lukefischerauthor.com

 ***

Veil Painting Workshop with David Dozier

Friday Sept. 21, 2018, 7 -9pm

Saturday Sept. 22, 10 am – 5 pm

Sunday Sept. 23, 10 am -1pm

Workshop fee: $135.00 for RSB members, $160.00 for non-members Supply fee: $135.00*

Veil Painting is a watercolor technique special to artists working with the writings of Rudolf Steiner. Transparent watercolors are thinned far more than usual and glazed over one another on white paper to achieve subtle color washes, or ‘veils.’ The colors are never mixed anywhere but on the paper, and then only one at a time in a wash over dry colors. To avoid loss of time to stretching watercolor paper and waiting for it to dry overnight, students will use 300# cold pressed watercolor paper or heavy illustration board for wet media. We will focus on technique and work with painting motifs using Goethe’s Luster Colors (red, yellow, and blue) and Image Colors (white, black green, and peach), also exploring Goethe’s use of Characteristic Colors, Non-characteristic Colors, and Harmonious Colors in varying combinations on small panels, the Goethean color wheel on a larger panel, with space for a free painting to try and find an image out of the color itself. Supplies: All supplies will be provided for participants out of the supply fee, and will become their personal materials to take home including; brushes, paper, color, jars, rags, tape, ruler, pencil, sharpener, eraser. Participants will be completely equipped to work at home after the workshop, including colors and where to buy additional supplies when needed.

To Register Send check by September 7th to: David Dozier 1050 Columbia Ave. #3E Chicago, IL 60626

*Anyone taking the workshop that believes they already have all the tools and materials they need and wishes to avoid paying the supply fee should speak to Mr. Dozier personally at 773-627-0060, and review their tools and materials against the supply list with him by September 1st, since supplies have to ordered at least two weeks in advance.

Bio: Since 1997 David A. Dozier has taught art history, digital art, painting in oils, pastels and watercolor, black & white drawing, calligraphy and block printing at the Chicago Waldorf School, as well as drawing skills to adults in the Arcturus Rudolf Steiner Education program. He has a Master’s degree in Education (with a Certificate in Waldorf Education) from Antioch New England Graduate School, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Visual Communication from Layton School of Art and Design with academic accreditation from Marquette University in Milwaukee, WI.

***

MIchaelmas Festival Saturday September 29th 2018

7 pm – 9 pm at the branch

Details TBA

***

AGM 2018 Friday, Oct 5 – Sunday, Oct 7 in New Orleans, Louisiana

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER ONLINE!

First Grace United Methodist Church 3401 Canal Street, New Orleans (Check out their amazing history here!)

Pre-conference: Thursday, Oct 4: Living in the Branches National Branch and Group Gathering

Free event! $25 lunch/refreshments fee.

Some travel scholarships available.
Email with questions.

National Youth Conference (Wed pm, Thurs, Fri am October 3-4-5):
MY HEART’S VOCATION: Finding Ourselves within Community

Click here for Youth Conference schedule and registration!

$250 Early Bird (until September 5th), $275 Standard

$375 Sponsorship (supports financial assistance) $60 Youth

Includes Friday light reception, snacks, beverages, and Sunday light brunch! Limited financial assistance available. Email to find out more. 

Conference Schedule

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER ONLINE!

9:00-3:30 First Grace Methodist Church
Living in the Branches: National Branch and Group Gathering
National Youth Conference (Details coming!)

4:00-9:00 Central Region Gathering

7:45-9:30 am – Bayou St. John Songtrail: meet under the McDonough Oak.

10:00-12:00 – Class Lesson and Conversation with Joan Sleigh

1:00 pm Opening

1:30-2:30 Keynote Conversation with Orland Bishop

2:30-2:45 Trio Sharing

2:45-3:30 Here and Now with the General Council

4:00-5:15 Concurrent Sessions (Choose on site)

Cain and Abel: Building a bridge between the Two Streams, with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

Exploring Transformation Through Our Own Biography, with Janey Newton

5:30-6:15 Central Region Interactive Panel

6:30 DINNER

8:00 Momento Mori Ritual (Stay tuned for details!)

8:00-8:45 Singing or Speech

9:00-10:00 Keynote Discussion with Joan Sleigh

10:00-10:15 Trio Sharing

10:45-12:00 Concurrent Workshops (Choose on site)

Initation of the Heart: The Fifth Gospel, with Patrick Kennedy

General Council Annual Update Session

Transforming Community – Creating the Future: Young People Discovering Their Purpose and Place, with Bart Eddy

12:00-1:30 Lunch (Table Topic Discussions)

1:30-2:30 Youth-Led Panel

3:00-4:15 Participant Research and Initiative Sharing Sessions
(Click here to submit your research/initiative sharing proposal.)

OR

3:00-4:15 Pageant Participant Preparation with Marianne Fieber-Dhara (Details at the conference!)

4:30-6:15 Concurrent Sessions (Choose on site)

Orland Bishop: The Seventh Shrine

House of Hope, with Thea Lavin

Anthroposophical Contemplative Practices in Everyday Life

6:15-7:30 DINNER

8:00-9:30 Confluence of Karma: A Pageant Of Dedicated Service

8:00-8:30 Group Speech

8:30-8:45 Trio Sharing

8:45-10:00 Now and Next (Art, Reflection, Closing Plenum, Singing)

11:00-12:30 First Grace Church Service, or Tour of Raphael Village [link]

Lunch on your own!

2:00-4:00 Lisa Romero: Contemplative Practices

2:00-4:00 John Bloom and Laura Scappaticci: “So That Good May Become”–Working with the Foundation Stone

See you in New Orleans!
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER ONLINE!

Schedule subject to minor changes.

Limited Financial Assistance Available.
Email community@anthroposophy.org for an application.

***

Alex Grey

Our Annual ALL SOULS Festival Saturday 3 November 2018

7 pm – 9 pm at the Branch

Details TBA

***