Category Archives: Rudolf Steiner Quote

Deathday of a Modern Knight

Dear Friends –
Today 30 March 2017, marks the 93rd anniversary of Rudolf Steiner’s Death
25 February 1861 – 30 March 1925

From “The Life and Work of Rudolf Steiner’ by Guenther Wachsmuth: “Even the last weeks in March 1925, during which he had to endure unspeakable suffering, were devoted in the most intense concentration to spiritual research, creative work, & bestowal…

…the beginning of his shared anthroposophical work with Marie von Sivers stood before his inner eye. It had not been easy for Marie Steiner to live with the increasing intense collaboration between Rudolf Steiner & Ita Wegman over the course of the last few years. Ita Wegman was so entirely different than she was. Now she was forced to deny herself the opportunity to care for the person she loved the most. Trouble with her legs inhibited her from doing this. That they had spoken about this with each other is evident from a letter he wrote her in Berlin on his official birthday:

“I write you these lines at about the same time that you would usually be sitting at my side. Thinking about how beautiful it is to listen to you speck about your activities & to speak with you about various aspects of your work moves me deeply. And when I know that you have now & again been able to read my Autobiography the description of our shared work, I feel deeply how closely connected we are. That destiny has brought other people close to me is simply the way destiny works. And my sickness has shown just how incisive this destiny can be. But you found the way to understanding; this is a blessing for me. To feel the unity of feeling & thinking in discernment is something I can do only with you. That I was not able to show you the last pages of the Steffen article before it went to the printer was a hardship for me. Then for myself, I find inner competence only in your judgement. Through you art is raised into the realms of the hierarchies. I gaze with wonder upon everything you achieve & with such devotion. In my thoughts I am with you” RS

Shielded under the devoted care of Dr. Ita Wegman, he still communicated many a spiritual message received, & he had us to report to him what was occurring on the hill of Dornach. He loved the living noise of hammering & scaffold-building which penetrated from the building place of the Goetheanum into the quiet of his sickroom, announcing the building in the process of coming into being. He was united through his council & help with this work to his last breath & beyond death.

The last moments in his earthly life were free from all struggle with the physical entity, free from all uncertainty such as characterizes the death of so many human beings; his countenance spoke of peace, grace, inner certitude, spiritual vision. He folded his hands over his breast; his eyes were shiningly & strongly directed into worlds with which in vision he was united. As he drew his last breath, he himself closed his eyes; but this filled the room not with the experience of an end, but with that of a most sublime spiritual action. An exalted, transfigured wakefulness spoke out of his countenance, out of the praying strength of the hands. As the great artists of the Middle Ages gave to the pictures of the knights resting upon the sarcophagus the expression indicating that their closed eyes were still beholding, their resting form was still able to stride forward, so did the figure here resting speak of a super-terrestrial wakefulness, of a striding forward into the spheres of the spirit.

The forward striding figure of the Christ statue, pointing into the expanses of the universe, which he himself had created & at whose feet he now lay, spoke for the eye of those left behind on earth what was taking place for the spirit of a great human being who had dedicated his life to the annunciation of the Christ. Even in dying, Rudolf Steiner bestowed upon humanity the most sublime gift of consolation: the certitude that death is a waking entrance into worlds of life & action.

From Ita Wegman Nachrichtenblatt 1925: “At 3 am, I noticed a slight change in his breathing. I approached his bed; he was awake. He looked at me & asked whether I was tired. This question touched me. His pulse was not as strong as it had been, but much faster. I called Dr. Noll in order to speak with him about what ought to be done. Herr Steiner was not astonished to see him there in the middle of the night & greeted him amiably. “I don’t feel too bad” he said “I just can’t sleep.” We turned the light out again. At 4 am, he called me because the pain had reappeared. He said, “As soon as the day comes, we want to continue the treatment that I suggested”…Naturally, we didn’t wait for the day to come but did what was necessary. But then the situation changed quickly – his pulse grew weaker, his breathing more rapid. And we had to experience how his life was gradually extinguished…He went as though it were the obvious thing to do. It seemed to me as though the dice had been thrown for a last decision. When they fell, there was no struggle, no attempt to remain upon the earth any longer. He gazed calmly into the space before him for a time, said a couple of tender words to me, consciously closed his eyes & folded his hands”

Again from “The Life and Work of Rudolf Steiner’ by Guenther Wachsmuth: In the lofty darkened space of the studio stood the bier of him who had completed this earthly life, surrounded by a sea of flowers, by the light of candles, the death watch by his side day & night. Many hundreds of persons came in soundless silence for the last visit, went back into life comforted, trusting, having received in their affliction assurance of the virtuousness of the Spirit, of rebirth. On the 3rd day the body was brought into the great workshop, to lie in state finally in the lecture hall, at the place from which he had for decades proclaimed the knowledge of the spirit. At the request of Frau Marie Steiner, Fredrich Rittelmeyer conducted the funeral service which was the gift of Rudolf Steiner to the Christian Community.

The next morning the coffin was carried away for cremation. When it was passing by the newly erected structure of the new Goetheanum, the workers at the building stood still on the scaffolding & greeted the master builder & friend. At the cremation ritual, Albert Steffen united us with our beloved teacher in a picture of his being which only the artist could draw in such shining perfection. He spoke of “the friend of God and leader of humanity”. And what has come into being in us earthly persons through the leadership & schooling of Rudolf Steiner as a certitude, what we are called upon to do in his spirit, he summarized in the following words:

“He has again showed the world to us in such a way that we know it has come forth out of god. He has died in such a way that we feel: Christ lives in this death. May his immortal Spirit be resurrected in our deeds. We will, as well as we can, make them holy.”

“To create centres of peace & love in which the Christ can resurrect.”
~written on the urn that holds the ashes of Rudolf Steiner

What a blessing to receive the teachings of this great initiate. May we continue our connection with him in the spiritual worlds & ever enliven our Michaelic work with The Christ & the Being of Anthroposophia.

~Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

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Upcoming Events & Festivals 

Sow the seeds of peaceful premonition

20 March 2017 – Astro-Weather: For those of you tired of winter weather, good news: Spring officially begins today. Earth’s vernal equinox occurs at 5:29 am CDT, which marks the moment when the Sun crosses the celestial equator traveling north. The Sun rises due east & sets due west today. If the Sun were a point of light & Earth had no atmosphere, everyone would get 12 hours of sunlight & 12 hours of darkness. But our blanket of air & the finite size of our star make today a few minutes longer than 12 hours

Last Quarter Moon occurs at 10:58 a.m. CDT. You can find the half-lit orb rising in the east along with the background stars of Sagittarius around 1 am; it hangs relatively low in the south-southeast as twilight begins. Look to our satellite’s lower right & you should pick up the bright glow of Saturn. The ringed planet shines significantly brighter than any of Sagittarius’ stars

If seeds in the black earth can turn into such beautiful flowers, what might not the heart become in the long journey towards the stars?”~ G K Chesterton

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Kirsty Mitchell.

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

I turn to history not for lessons but to confront my experience with the experience of others and to win for myself a sense of responsibility for the state of the human conscience”. ~ Zbigniew Herbert

Today marks the vernal point in the Northern Hemisphere & the autumnal point in the Southern Hemisphere, when day & night are in balance

Nowruz (Persian: literally “New Day”) the Iranian New Year, also known as the Persian New Year. Nowruz is partly rooted in the traditions of Mitraism & Zoroastrianism. In Mitraism, festivals had a deep linkage with the sun light. The Iranian festivals such as Mehrgan (autumnal equinox), Tirgan, & the eve of Chelle ye Zemestan (winter solstice) also had an origin in the Sun god (Surya). Among other ideas, Zoroastrianism is the first monotheistic religion that emphasizes broad concepts; such as the corresponding work of good & evil in the world,& the connection of humans to nature. Zoroastrian practices were dominant for much of the history of ancient Iran.

Although having Iranian & religious Zoroastrian origins, Nowruz has been celebrated by people from diverse ethno-linguistic communities for thousands of years. It is a secular holiday for most celebrants that is enjoyed by people of several different faiths, but remains a holy day for Zoroastrians

Bethany Roberts

OSTARA (pronounced O-STAR-ah) is celebrated on the Vernal or Spring Equinox. The name for this Sabbat actually comes from that of the Teutonic lunar Goddess, Eostre. Her chief symbols are the bunny (for fertility & because the Ancient Ones who worshiped her often saw the image of a rabbit in the full moon), & the egg (representing the cosmic egg of creation). This is where the customs of “Easter Eggs” & the “Easter Bunny” originated.

Ostara is a time to celebrate the arrival of Spring, the renewal & rebirth of Nature herself, & the coming lushness of Summer. It is at this time when light & darkness are in balance, yet the light is growing stronger by the day. The forces of masculine & feminine energy, yin & yang, are also in balance at this time. At this time we think of renewing ourselves. We renew our thoughts, our dreams, & our aspirations. We think of renewing our relationships. This is an excellent time of year to begin anything new or to completely revitalize something. This is also an excellent month for prosperity rituals or rituals that have anything to do with growth.

Customs such as the lighting of new fires at dawn for healing, renewed life, & protection of the crops still survive in the Southern Americas as well as in Europe. Eggs were gathered & used for the creation of talismans & also ritually eaten. The gathering of different colored eggs from the nests of a variety of birds has given rise to two traditions still observed today – the Easter egg hunt, & coloring eggs in imitation of the various pastel colors of wild birds. It is also believed that humankind first got the idea of weaving baskets from watching birds weave nests. This is perhaps the origin of the association between colored Easter eggs & Easter baskets.

There is much symbolism in eggs themselves. The golden orb of its yolk represents the Sun God, its white shell is seen as the White Goddess, & the whole is a symbol of rebirth. The Goddess Eostre’s patron animal was the hare.

The Spring Equinox is a time of new beginnings, of action, of planting seeds for future grains, & of tending gardens. Spring is a time of the Earth’s renewal, a rousing of nature after the cold sleep of winter. As such, it is an ideal time to clean your home to welcome the new season. “Spring cleaning” is much more than simply physical work. It may be seen as a concentrated effort to rid your home of the problems & negativity of the past months, & to prepare for the coming spring and summer. To do this, we may approach the task of cleaning our homes with positive thoughts. This frees the home of any negative feelings brought about by a harsh winter. A common rule of thumb for Spring cleaning is that all motions involving scrubbing of stains or hand rubbing the floors should be done “clockwise”. This custom aids in filling the home with good energy for growth.

Appropriate Deities for Ostara include all Youthful and Virile Gods and Goddesses, Sun Gods, Mother Goddesses, Love Goddesses, Moon Gods and Goddesses, & all Fertility Deities. Some Ostara Deities to mention by name here include Persephone, Blodeuwedd, Eostre, Aphrodite, Athena, Cybele, Gaia, Hera, Isis, Ishtar, Minerva, Venus, Robin of the Woods, the Green Man, Cernunnos, Lord of the Greenwood, The Dagda, Attis, The Great Horned God, Mithras, Odin, Thoth, Osiris, & Pan.

Key actions to keep in mind during this time in the Wheel of the Year include openings & new beginnings. Work for improving communication & group interaction are recommended, as well as fertility & abundance. Ostara is a good time to start putting those plans and preparations you made at Imbolc into action. Start working towards physically manifesting your plans now

43 BC – Birthday of Ovid, Roman poet

303 – Birthday of Saint Alexandra of Rome, wife of the Emperor Diocletian who secretly converted to Christianity. While Saint George was being tortured, Alexandra went to the arena, bowed before him & professed her faith openly. When she questioned whether she was worthy of paradise & of martyrdom without being baptized, Saint George told her “Do not fear, for your blood will baptize you.” She was denounced a Christian & imprisoned on her husband’s orders in Nicomedia, then sentenced to die. Her husband was so outraged by her conversion that he is said to have uttered “What! Even thou hast fallen under their spell!”

1602 – The Dutch East India Company is established

1616 – Sir Walter Raleigh is freed from the Tower of London after 13 years of imprisonment

1726 – Deathday of Isaac Newton, English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, & philosopher

1760 – The Great Boston Fire  destroys 349 buildings

1815 – After escaping from Elba, Napoleon enters Paris beginning his “Hundred Days” rule

1828 – Birthday of Henrik Ibsen, Norwegian poet, playwright, & director

1852 – Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin is published

1861 – An earthquake completely destroys Mendoza, Argentina

1915 – Albert Einstein publishes his general theory of relativity

1922 – The USS Langley is commissioned as the first United States Navy aircraft carrier

1923 – The Arts Club of Chicago hosts the opening of Pablo Picasso‘s first United States showing, entitled Original Drawings by Pablo Picasso, becoming an early proponent of modern art in the United States

1928 – Birthday of Fred Rogers, American television host & producer

1933 – Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler ordered the creation of Dachau concentration camp as Chief of Police of Munich & appointed Theodor Eicke as the camp commandant.

1995 – The Japanese cult Aum Shinrikyo carries out a sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway, killing 12 and wounding over 1,300 people.

2003 – Invasion of Iraq: In the early hours of the morning, the United States and three other countries (the UK, Australia and Poland) begin military operations in Iraq

2012 – At least 52 people are killed and more than 250 injured in a wave of terror attacks across ten cities in Iraq

2015 – A Solar eclipse, equinox, & a Supermoon all occur on the same day

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POD (Poem Of the Day)

~Will you
Sow the seeds of peaceful premonition
Into a fruitful action
To ignite the weave
In radiant expectation
~hag

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“Spring is coming, spring is coming
birdies build your nest.
weave together straw and feather
doing each your best.
spring is coming, spring is coming
flowers are waking, too.
daisies, lilies, and daffodils
now are coming through.
spring is coming, spring is coming
all around is fair.
shimmer, glimmer on the meadow,
joy is everywhere.”

Equinox means “equal night” when the sun is positioned above the equator & day and night are about equal in length all over the world. This is the start of the Astrological year. Many ancient cultures built structures to point directly toward the rising Sun on this day every year. The celebration of the Vernal Equinox is about new life & hope, the planting of seeds & the activation of the fertility cycle.

A look into the ancient Mystery Schools honoring The Vernal Equinox: The Spring Equinox is also called: Alban Eilir, Eostar, Eostre, Feast of Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Festival of Trees, Lady Day, NawRuz, No Ruz, Ostara, Ostra, Rites of Spring. The Old Testament heroine of Spring was the goddess Ishtar- Persian for ‘star'(Esther is the Aramaic word for Ishtar).  So Ishtar was the goddess of the morning & evening star, as well as being the Great Mother, Shining One, Lady of Visions, Priestess of Priestess’, she was the source of the Oracles of Prophesy, & Possessor of the Tablets of Life’s Records.Her symbols were the eight pointed star, the pentagram, dove, serpents, & the double axe. Her planet was Venus. She wore a rainbow necklace. The Persians converted this necklace (the rainbow) into a razor-sharp bridge that led to the Mount of Paradise. In ancient Sumeria, she had 180 shrines where women gathered daily for prayer, meditation, & socializing. The night of the full moon, known as Shapatu, saw joyous celebrations in her temples.

In Ireland, the spring equinox was celebrated long before the arrival of the Celtic tribes. The best known of the ancient Irish equinox temples is Knowth, which is near to Newgrange (Brú na Boinne). Knowth has a 100-foot long passage that accepts the Sun on the morning of the Spring & Autumn Equinox. A second & older stone cairn equinox temple is found at Longhcrew & is given the name Cairn T. Both Knowth & Cairn follow a sunbeam on the morning of the Equinoxs to enter a passageway lighting up the sacred geometry on a back stone inside the temple. This precise timing from a period of over 6 thousand years ago still works today.

The German fertility Goddess was Ostara, who was associated with fertility. Ostara mated with the solar god on the Spring Equinox & nine months later she gave birth to a child at the Winter Solstice.

The Saxon name for the Germanic lunar goddess Ostara was Eostre. Her festival was held at the full moon after the Spring Equinox just like our Easter celebrations.

The Mayans of Central American have also honoured the spring equinox. For ten centuries they have held their unique celebration using their ancient knowledge of the Sunbeam. El Castillo is the name of their great pyramid of the Equinox & as the sunsets on its western face light & dark compliment each other creating a very special pattern of a diamond backed snake descending the pyramid. This solar magic has always been known as the “The Return of the Sun Serpent”.

For the Greeks the god-man of the Spring Equinox was Dionysus. He was associated with flowering plants & fruitful vines & he was always in pain during winter, symbolizing hibernation & the cessation of growth. He returned triumphant on the Spring Equinox & many researchers see direct parallels with the story of Jesus Christ.

Mesopotamia, Sumeria, Babylonia, Elam (5000 years ago) celebrated the start of their new year at the time of the spring equinox. Zoroastrianism was the religion of Ancient Persia until the advent of Islam 1400 years ago. “Nooruz,” their ‘new day’ or New Year was celebrated on the Spring Equinox. Many religious historians connect Judeo-Christian concepts to Zoroastrianism.

In Rome, about 200 years before the birth of Christ there was a wide range of what are today called “mystery cults”. Attis & Cybele held their Spring Equinox rituals at the location of today’s St. Peter’s on Vatican hill. Attis was also known under various names such as Osiris, Dionysus, Tammuz & Orpheus. The Attis & Cybele festival had a death or day of blood & three days of semi-death & then a return to life for the deceased. Attis‘s mother was called Nana & she was a virgin. Attis was crucified on a pine tree.  His blood was spilled to redeem the earth. Attis was both a sacrificial victim & a savior, his death & re-birth was intended to bring salvation to mankind. Most researchers will say that Attis is clearly a prefiguring prototype for The Christ.

In Judaism we can see that the Passover dinner was their spring fertility festival. It records the escape of the ancient Hebrews from slavery in Egypt – its main meal was of unleavened bread & lamb.

In America the native Indians honoured the Spring Equinox in landscape-sized temples such as Mystery Hill in Salem NH. Five standing stones & one recumbent stone are set in a linear alignment that connects the sunrise on both the Spring & Autumn Equinoxes.

March 20-23, is the mid-point of the Waxing Year. The spark of light that was born at Winter Solstice has reached maturity, & from this point forward, the days grow longer than the nights. This is the time of full Dawn, 6:00 a.m. on the Year Clock, & so was the time of the festivals of the Grecian Goddess, Eostre, & the Germanic Ostara, both Goddesses of Dawn. (It is from these Bright Ladies that the modern Easter holiday takes its name). This is the time that is often seen as the time of Kore’s return from the Underworld, where She (as Persephone) has ruled throughout the Winter. It is also the time of the celebration of the rebirth of Adonis the Beautiful.

Spring is the time for a celebration of planting & of the greening of the Earth. Folks start to talk about having ‘Spring Fever’ & doing ‘Spring cleaning’, as the brighter sunshine provides a needed morale boost.

Many traditions associated with Spring Equinox have been retained over the years & grafted onto the Easter celebration. Even today, people arise early on Easter morning to attend ‘Sunrise Service’. (Remember Eostre, the Dawn Goddess?)

May this time of new beginnings bring you the fresh start you need, as you begin to plan & to plant the seeds for the future you want to see grow with the light.

Xox ~Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

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Gretchen Steele

The Bridging Project
Between Life and Death from Soul to Soul
April 5, 2017 – 7:15 pm CST 

This dulling of human feelings of wonder is connected with what was not taken up in the age approaching the twentieth century. If we wish to speak of the causes of our present catastrophic events, we will find that these causes are not human actions, but instead are sins of omission. This is the essential point.” ~Rudolf Steiner, Historical Necessity and Freewill, Lecture 6, “New Spiritual Impulses in History – Their Rejection by the Materialistic World Conception and the Result of the Catastrophic Events of World War I” … Our focus for the April 5 meeting

The Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society in America invites you to join our ongoing study conversation. The study has been divided amongst six volunteers who will summarize their section to rebuild it as a foundation for our conversation. Please familiarize yourself with the lecture if possible so you will feel comfortable sharing your reflections and thoughts with the group.

This collection of lectures has been republished under the title: “The Influence of the Dead on Destiny”, here is the link:
https://steiner.presswarehouse.com/books/BookDetail.aspx?productID=179577
The following is the link to the audio book and lectures:
http://www.rudolfsteineraudio.com/influencedeaddestiny1917/influencedestinydead1917.html

This will be a “go-to-meeting” conference call allowing us an opportunity to see one another while conversing (or audio only if you prefer).  To connect to the audio/video-conference:
Option 1.  Click link below if you wish to connect through your computer (a headset is recommended)
https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/328407941
Option 2.  Call in using your telephone.
United States: +1 (312) 757-3117
Canada: +1 (647) 497-9373
Access Code: 328-407-941
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.

Please join us!
Agenda for our Study Call

7:15 Verse
7:18 Welcome and Introductions
7:25 Study led by six volunteers
Alberto – beginning to page 79
Marianne D – page 79 to 81
Hazel – page 81 to page 83
Raven – page 83 to page 85
Marianne F-D – page 85 to 87
Travis – page 87 to end
8:05 Conversation
8:20 Identify volunteers for the next study call, June 14
8:25 Share initial thoughts regarding Central Region gatherings in August (time of the solar eclipse) and November (All Souls)
8:28 Close with verse

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El Greco

Our Holy Week Study: “An Outline of Esoteric Science Chapter 5: Knowledge of Higher Worlds – Initiation” by Rudolf Steiner:

Palm Sunday April 9th 2017 – 2pm – 4pm

Holy Mon, Tues, Wed, Thurs, Good Fri – 7pm – 9pm

Holy Saturday 2pm – 4pm

Easter Sunday April 16th 2017,  2pm – 4pm –

The Midwest Eurythmy Group will perfrom

~The Mystery of Golgotha – Then and Now~ A discourse with Hazel Archer Ginsberg

Group work: Based on Baruch Urieli’s ‘Learning to Experience the Etheric World –
Empathy, the After-Image and a New Social Ethic’

at the Rudolf Steiner Branch of the Anthroposophical Society 4249 N. Lincoln Ave, Chicago IL. 60618. MAP

Details to follow

PI day

14 March 2017 – Astro-Weather: Jupiter, Spica, & the waning gibbous Moon form a triangle that rises in the east around 8 pm. They wheel across the sky in tandem tonight, reaching their peak altitudes in the south during the wee hours. The giant planet shines against the backdrop of central Virgo, northwest of that constellation’s brightest star, Spica.

As midnight approaches, look to the east for the bright star Arcturus. It is the second-brightest star visible from mid-northern latitudes. If you scan to the left & a little below this luminary, you should see a conspicuous semicircle of stars — the constellation Corona Borealis the Northern Crown. It’s the most prominent group of stars having a shape reminiscent of a circle, & it makes a fitting target for Pi Day. (For you non-geeks, Pi Day is 3/14 because the first three digits of the mathematical constant pi are 3.14. Pi is the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter, so today we celebrate all things circular.)

If seeds in the black earth can turn into such beautiful flowers, what might not the heart become in the long journey towards the stars?”~ G K Chesterton

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Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Looking at the past to see the present, co-creating the future:

History, historical life, will only be seen in the right light when a true consciousness of the connection of the so-called living with the so-called dead can be developed” – The Living & the Dead by Rudolf Steiner, Berlin, 5th February, 1918

Antonio Molinari

Feast Day of Abigail (Hebrew “my father’s joy”) in 2 Samuel 17:25 she became a wife of David after Nabal’s death. She became the mother of one of David’s sons, who is listed in the Book of Chronicles under the name Daniel. Abigail is also listed as one of the seven Jewish women prophets.

Anglia Campus

44 BC – Casca & Cassius decide, on the night before the Assassination of Julius Caesar, that Mark Antony should live

 Titian

1489 – The Queen of Cyprus, Catherine Cornaro, sells her kingdom to Venice

1592 – Ultimate Pi Day: the largest correspondence between calendar dates & significant digits of pi since the introduction of the Julian calendar

1794 – Eli Whitney is granted a patent for the cotton gin

1879 – Birthday of Albert Einstein! (1879 the year Michael became the Time-Spirit)

1900 – The Gold Standard Act is ratified, placing United States currency on the gold standard.

1903 – The Hay–Herrán Treaty, granting the United States the right to build the Panama Canal, is ratified by the United States Senate. The Colombian Senate would later reject the treaty

1926 – El Virilla train accident, Costa Rica: A train falls off a bridge over the Río Virilla between Heredia and Tibás. 248 are killed & 93 wounded

1943 – World War II: The Kraków Ghetto is “liquidated

1978 – The Israel Defense Forces invade & occupies southern Lebanon, in Operation Litani

1980 – In Poland, LOT Flight 7 crashes during final approach near Warsaw, killing 187 people, including a 14-man American boxing team

1681 – Birthday of Georg Philipp Telemann, a German Baroque composer & multi-instrumentalist. Almost completely self-taught in music, he became a composer against his family’s wishes. He held important positions in Leipzig, Sorau, Eisenach,& Frankfurt before settling in Hamburg in 1721, where he became musical director of the city’s five main churches. While Telemann’s career prospered, his personal life was always troubled: his first wife died only a few months after their marriage, & his second wife had extramarital affairs & accumulated a large gambling debt before leaving Telemann.

Telemann was one of the most prolific composers in history & was considered by his contemporaries to be one of the leading German composers of the time—he was compared favorably both to his friend Johann Sebastian Bach, who made Telemann the godfather & namesake of his son Carl Philipp Emanuel, & to George Frideric Handel, whom Telemann also knew personally. He remained at the forefront of all new musical tendencies & his music is an important link between the late Baroque & early Classical styles

1790 – Birthday of Ludwig Emil Grimm, a German painter, art professor, etcher & copper engraver. His brothers were the well-known folklorists Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm

1804 – Birthday of Johann Strauss I, an Austrian Romantic composer. He was famous for his waltzes, & he popularized them alongside Joseph Lanner, thereby setting the foundations for his sons to carry on his musical dynasty. His most famous piece is the Radetzky March

1867 – Birthday of Marie Steiner von Sivers – born into an aristocratic family in Włocławek, Poland, then part of Russia. She was well-educated &was fluent in Russian, German, English, French & Italian. She studied theater & recitation with several teachers in Europe.

Marie von Sivers “appeared one day” at one of Rudolf Steiner’s early lectures in 1900. In the autumn of 1901, she posed the question to Steiner, “Would it be possible to create a spiritual movement based on European tradition and the impetus of Christ?” Rudolf Steiner later reported: With this, I was given the opportunity to act in a way that I had only previously imagined. The question had been put to me, and now, according to spiritual laws, I could begin to answer it.

Marie Steiner-von Sivers & Rudolf Steiner were married on Christmas eve 1914, & she was one of his closest colleagues. Marie von Sivers collaborated with Steiner for the rest of his life & carried his work beyond his death in 1925 until her own death in 1948. She accompanied him & helped him as secretary, translator, editor, & organizer of his lecture tours & other public activities. She assisted Steiner’s work with her own resources & in 1908 founded the Philosophical-Theosophical Press (later Philosophical-Anthroposophical) to publish Steiner’s work

She made a great contribution to the development of anthroposophy, particularly in her work on the renewal of the performing arts (eurythmy, speech & drama), & the editing & publishing of Rudolf Steiner’s literary estate.

Starting in 1912, the art of eurythmy was developed by Rudolf Steiner. Under Marie Steiner-von Sivers’ guidance, it developed in three directions, as a stage art, as an integral part of Waldorf pedagogy, & as a therapeutic method. Under her tutelage, two schools of eurythmy were founded, in Berlin & in Dornach, Switzerland.

Marie von Sivers was trained in recitation & elocution & made a study of purely artistic speaking. She gave introductory poetry recitals at Steiner’s lectures & assisted him in the development of the 4 Mystery Dramas (1910–1913). With her help, Steiner conducted several speech & drama courses with the aim of raising these forms to the level of true art. Ms Steiner died on December 27th 1948

1883 – Deathda y of Karl Marx

1923 – Birthday of Diane Arbus, American photographer & writer noted for photographs of marginalized people—dwarfs, giants, transgender people, nudists, circus performers—& others whose normality was perceived by the general populace as ugly or surreal. In 1972, a year after she committed suicide, Arbus became the first American photographer to have photographs displayed at the Venice Biennale.  Millions viewed traveling exhibitions of her work in 1972–1979. The book accompanying the exhibition, Diane Arbus: An Aperture Monograph, is the bestselling photography monograph ever, still being reprinted today

1932 – Deathday of George Eastman, American inventor & businessman, founded Eastman Kodak

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Lisa gibbions

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~The grey sun quickens
In the lap of a bear
Dreaming the southern sky…
I shine on the snow above her legs with the waning moon
& wait my turn to return
~hag

***

CREATIVE SPEECH from ‘Das Goetheanum,’ 7th March, 1926 By Marie Steiner von Sivers

“SPEECH reveals to the human being their divine nature; the sounds of speech are creative forces which unite us with our spiritual origin and enable us, once again, to find the path leading to the spirit. Speech raises the human being above the level of the animal; it leads us back to the Divine within our Ego. That spark from the Divine Ego, which, issuing forth, prepared itself to become human, had of necessity, as it traveled the path leading into the material world, to unite itself with the forces of destruction. When the densifying process worked too strongly, damming up the spirit, as it were, then the form could be cast off by the ever-recurring forces of death and change. Thus there arose the animal kingdom, which may be likened to a kind of extended alphabet, containing within it all that burdened humanity too heavily when we carried it compressed within the limits of our own being. In the human being it was able to be so far clarified that it could develop into the Word, into Speech. Sound, tone in the animal kingdom cannot rise to the level of speech. It remains mere noise in the case of cold-blooded animals, and, in the case of warm-blooded animals, inarticulate sound. Even in its most beautiful form, in the song of the birds, cosmic tone cannot fully reveal itself; the song of the birds is at most only its faintest echo. It is in speech that the individual force of the Ego first finds expression through tone and becomes aware of its own being. Through speech, cosmic forces can, as it were, focus themselves in an individual Ego and from out this Ego work creatively once more.

When the human being raises to the upright position, when we change from the horizontal position natural to the animal to the vertical position of the human being, we free the forces of speech. The child is overshadowed by these forces; as their individuality develops they become more and more strongly united with them. The child does not say ‘ I ’ of themselves so long as their utterance is mere incoherent babbling. In personal desire, in egoism, the lower ego in the first place struggles through, expressing itself in wishes and desires, afterwards working its way through to feeling and thence into thought. Thought enters into the human being through the gate of speech. Pictures, imaginations are in this way raised up into the consciousness. Through this interplay of processes the human being becomes a thinking being.

 A ray from the spiritual essence of the Sun enters into the human being through the mind. In the German language there is a reflection of this in the words ‘Sonne’ (Sun) and ‘Sinn’ (Mind), where the all-embracing, all-enclosing vowel sound ‘ O ’ is transformed into an arrow of light in the vowel sound ‘ E ’ (ee)”.

There I find the secret path…

11 March 2017 – Astro-Weather: Bright Bella Luna hangs a few degrees below & left of Regulus this evening. The Sickle of Leo extends from Regulus toward the upper left.

Bella Luna is equally full this evening & tomorrow night in the Americas. That’s because the exact time of full Moon, 11:54 am March 12th CST, lands halfway between the two evenings. Tonight the Moon shines by the dim hind leg of Leo. Tomorrow evening it’s by the dim head of Virgo.

Venus shines brilliantly in the western sky after sunset all week. The inner planet of Love glows brighter than the evening sky’s second-brightest point of light, Jupiter. Venus shows up easily within a half-hour after sunset & remains on view until nearly 8 pm CST.

Late tonight comes the second-brightest asteroid occultation predicted this year for North America – A star in Leo’s snout, just in front of the Sickle.

Daylight-saving time begins at 2 a.m. Sunday morning for most of North America. Clocks spring forward.

TODAY: the Sun enters the astronomical constellation of Pisces, the stars of this cultural age

***

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

We understand only the very smallest part of human history and of our own life if we consider it in its external aspect, I mean in that aspect which we see from the limited view-point of our earthly life between birth and death. It is impossible to comprehend the inner motives of history and life unless we turn our gaze to that spiritual background which underlies the outer, physical happenings” ~Rudolf Steiner. Karmic Relationships, Volume IV: Lecture III

222 – Emperor Elagabalus is assassinated, along with his mother, Julia Soaemias, by the Praetorian Guard during a revolt. Their mutilated bodies are dragged through the streets of Rome before being thrown into the Tiber. Elagabalus served as a priest of the Syrian god Elagabal, barely 14 years old, when he became emperor, initiating a reign remembered mainly for sex scandals &religious controversy.

Elagabalus showed a disregard for Roman religious traditions & sexual taboos. He replaced the traditional head of the Roman pantheon, Jupiter, with Elagabalus. He forced leading members of Rome’s government to participate in religious rites celebrating this deity, over which he personally presided. Elagabalus was supposedly “married” as many as five times, lavished ‘favors’ on male courtiers &  was reported to have prostituted himself in the imperial palace. He developed a reputation among his contemporaries for extreme eccentricity, decadence, & zealotry. His behavior estranged the Praetorian Guard, the Senate, & the common people alike.

336 BC – Deathday of Attalus important courtier of king Philip II of Macedonia.

Attalus’ niece Cleopatra Eurydice married king Philip II of Macedonia. At the wedding, Attalus made a prayer that Cleopatra give birth to a male heir. This was seen as a direct insult to Alexander the Great.

Philip II appointed Attalus & Parmenion as commanders of the advance force that would invade the Persian Empire in Asia Minor. After Philip II had been assassinated & Alexander became king, Cleopatra Eurydice, her two children, & Attalus were all killed.

According to a story of Aristotle‘s, Attalus sexually assaulted Pausanias of Orestis in retribution for besmirching the reputation of Attalus’ friend (possibly relation), also named Pausanias, an event that led to the latter Pausanias’s death. Philip II assassination by Pausanias of Orestis has been tied to this affair since Pausanias was upset that Phillip had not punished Attalus.

At the time of the accession of Alexander the Great to the Macedonian throne, Attalus was stationed with Parmenion & the Macedonian advance army in Asia Minor. In the wake of Phillip II’s death, it is alleged by hostile sources that Demosthenes of Athens wrote a letter to Attalus promising Athens’ support if the two made war on Alexander.

Attalus submitted Demosthenes’ letters to Alexander & pledged his support to the king. However, Alexander had Attalus killed, remembering the past insult of Attalus. Even without the resentment between the two men, Alexander probably felt Attalus was too ambitious to remain alive, & would have good reason for revenge after the deaths of Cleopatra Eurydice & her children.

638 – Deathday of Sophronius of Jerusalem, the Patriarch of Jerusalem venerated as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox & Catholic Churches. He was a monk & theologian who was the chief protagonist for Orthodox teaching in the doctrinal controversy on the essential nature of Jesus & his volitional acts.

Sophronius was of Byzantine Greek, as well as Syrian Arab descent. A teacher of rhetoric, Sophronius became an ascetic in Egypt & then entered the monastery of St. Theodosius near Bethlehem. Traveling to monastic centres in Asia Minor, Egypt, & Rome, he accompanied the Byzantine chronicler St. John Moschus, who dedicated to him his celebrated tract on the religious life, Leimõn ho Leimõnon (Greek: “The Spiritual Meadow”) (and whose feast day in the Eastern Orthodox Church, 11 March is shared with Sophonius’)

He traveled to Alexandria, Egypt, & to Constantinople to persuade the respective patriarchs to renounce Monothelitism, a heterodox teaching that espoused a single, divine will in Christ to the exclusion of a human capacity for choice. Sophronius’ extensive writings on this question are all lost.

Although unsuccessful in this mission, Sophronius was elected patriarch of Jerusalem in 634. Soon after his enthronement he forwarded his noted synodical letter to Pope Honorius I & to the Eastern patriarchs, explaining the orthodox belief in the two natures, human & divine, of Christ, as opposed to Monothelitism.

In 637, after the conquest of Jerusalem by Muslim armies, the Muslim caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab came to Jerusalem & toured the city with Sophronius. During the tour of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the time for the Muslims’ prayer came, & despite Sophronius’s offer to Umar to pray inside the Church, Umar chose to pray outside. The caliph’s reason for declining to pray there was because in the future Muslims might say that Umar prayed here & use it as an excuse to build a mosque there. Therefore, Muslims are not allowed to build a mosque there. So appreciating the caliph’s intelligence Sophronius gave the keys of the church to him. Unable to refuse it the caliph gave it to a family of Muslims from Medina. The keys of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre still remain with the Muslim family.

1702 – The Daily Courant, England’s first national daily newspaper is published for the first time

1818 – Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein; or The modern Prometheus, is published

1824 – The United States Department of War creates the Bureau of Indian Affairs

1864 – The Great Sheffield Flood kills 1238 people in England

1888 – The Great Blizzard of 1888 begins along the eastern seaboard of the United States, shutting down commerce & killing more than 1400

1918 – The 1st case of Spanish flu occurs, the start of a devastating worldwide pandemic

1990 – Lithuania declares itself independent from the Soviet Union

2007 – Georgia claims Russian helicopters attacked the Kodori Valley in Abkhazia, an accusation that Russia categorically denies later

2011 – An earthquake measuring 9.0 in magnitude strikes Sendai, Japan, triggering a tsunami killing thousands of people. This event also triggered the second largest nuclear accident in history, classified as a Level 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale

2012 – A U.S. soldier kills 16 civilians in the Panjwayi District of Afghanistan near Kandahar

2016 – At least 221 people are killed by flooding & mudslides in São Paulo, Brazil

***

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~Lady of the Wheel, of the Fates, of the Fist…
Beneath Her robe curls a caterpillar in an empty sky
Her flame is sharp – Her hands are quick
She burns flesh into ash & light
Yet Her mouth is wet & soothing
Her teeth are the rattling seeds of the sistrum, a brilliant moment in time
She molds my form in wax & tosses it into the flames
There I find the secret path...
~hag

***

As requested: I have posted my PowerPoint presentations from my recent lectures. Thanks for all your encouragement.

Come join us for more upcoming events:

Our Holy Week Study: “An Outline of Esoteric Science Chapter 5: Knowledge of Higher Worlds – Initiation” by Rudolf Steiner:

Palm Sunday April 9th 2017 – 2pm – 4pm

Holy Mon, Tues, Wed, Thrus, Good Fri – 7pm – 9pm

Holy Saturday 2pm – 4pm

El Greco

Easter Sunday April 16th 2017,  2pm – 4pm –

~The Mystery of Golgotha – Then and Now~

Details to follow

Xox

Hazel Archer Ginsberg

The 156th Anniversary of Rudolf Steiner’s Birthday

25 February 2017 – Astro-Weather: Many of us have been following the dance between Venus & Mars these past 3 weeks,

but also blazing high in the south on the meridian by about 8 or 9 pm right now, is the dazzling Sirius. And have you ever seen Canopus, the second-brightest star after Sirius? In one of the many interesting coincidences Canopus crosses due south just 21 minutes before Sirius does.

When to look? Canopus is precisely due south when Beta Canis MajorisMirzam the Announcer, the star about three finger-widths to the right of Sirius — is at its highest point due south around 7 -8 pm now. Look straight down from Mirzam, the brightest star to the right of Sirius.

***

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day (his Birthday!!!)

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

138 – The Roman emperor Hadrian adopts Antoninus Pius, to be his successor

777 – Deathday of Saint Walpurga The earliest representation of Walpurga, in the early 11th-century Hitda Codex, made in Cologne, depicts her holding stylized stalks of grain. The grain attribute represents the older pagan concept of the Grain Mother. Peasant farmers fashioned her replica in a corn dolly at harvest time & told tales to explain Saint Walpurga’s presence in the grain sheaf. St. Richard, when starting with his two sons on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, entrusted Walburga, then 11 years old, to the abbess of Wimborne. Walpurga was educated by the nuns of Wimborne Abbey, Dorset, where she spent 26 years as a member of the community. She then travelled with her brothers, Willibald & Winebald, to Francia to assist Saint Boniface, her mother’s brother, in evangelizing among the still-pagan Germans. Because of her rigorous training, she was able to write her brother Winibald’s vita & an account in Latin of his travels in Palestine. As a result, she is often called the first female author of both England & Germany. Walpurga became a nun in the double monastery of Heidenheim am Hahnenkamm, which was founded by her other brother, Willibald, who appointed her as his successor. Following his death in 751, she became the abbess

1631 – François de Bassompierre, a French courtier, is arrested on Richelieu’s orders

1848 – Provisional government in revolutionary France, by Louis Blanc’s motion, guarantees workers’ rights

1856 – A Peace conference opens in Paris after the Crimean War

1861 – Birthday of Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner

 1866 – Miners in Calaveras County, California, discover what is now called the Calaveras Skull – human remains that supposedly indicated that man, mastodons, and elephants had co-existed

1870 – Hiram Rhodes Revels, a Republican from Mississippi, is sworn into the United States Senate, becoming the first African American ever to sit in the U.S. Congress

1901 – J. P. Morgan incorporates the United States Steel Corporation.

1921 – Tbilisi, capital of the Democratic Republic of Georgia, is occupied by Bolshevist Russia

1928 – Charles Jenkins Laboratories of Washington, D.C. becomes the first holder of a broadcast license for television from the Federal Radio Commission

1932 – Adolf Hitler obtains German citizenship by naturalization, which allows him to run in the 1932 election for Reichspräsident

1948 – The Communist Party takes control of government in Czechoslovakia & the period of the Third Republic ends

1956 – In his speech On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences, Nikita Khrushchev, leader of the Soviet Union denounces the cult of personality of Joseph Stalin

1968 –135 unarmed citizens of Hà My village in South Vietnam’s Quảng Nam Province are killed & buried en mass in the Hà My massacre

1986 – People Power Revolution: President of the Philippines Ferdinand Marcos flees the nation after 20 years of rule; Corazon Aquino becomes the Philippines’ first woman president

1991 – Gulf War: An Iraqi scud missile hits an American military barracks in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia killing 28 U.S. Army Reservists from Pennsylvania

1991 – The Warsaw Pact is declared disbanded

1992 – Khojaly massacre: About 613 civilians are killed by Armenian armed forces during the conflict in the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan

1994 – Mosque of Abraham massacre: In the Cave of the Patriarchs in the West Bank city of Hebron, Baruch Goldstein opens fire with an automatic rifle, killing 29 Palestinian worshippers & injuring 125 more before being subdued & beaten to death by survivors

February 23–March 1:  Fasching/Fasnacht – a German carnival season, celebrations, dances, & parades in the nights leading up to Ash Wednesday

 ***

 

~May the rhythm of my heart stir music
That dances darkness into the light…
May my heart witness what my hands create
The words I utter, the worlds I think…
May my flesh be a sail propelled by the breath of truth
As I ride in calm waters toward destiny
~hag

***

 

We will celebrate the 156th Anniversary of Rudolf Steiner’s Birthday 

on the New Moon/Solar Eclipse

Sunday February 26th 2017, 3 pm – 5 pm

 Astrologer Victoria Martin will analyze his horoscope in the most respectful manner, expounding on some classic interpretations of Rudolf Steiner’s Birth chart – For instance did you know he was born on a Full Moon, near the zenith of the sky aligned to Saturn? Victoria will also go further by adding the fixed stars, which according to Brian Gray at Steiner College, are basic components in Astrosophy.

The Solar eclipse, on Sunday February 26th 2017 indicates a new phase of Steiner’s influence, which is especially potent for the next six months!

Victoria will also do 3-minute readings for each participant to see where their birthdays fit in Steiner’s horoscope! This can be even more precise if the entire horoscope of participants is available, so please email your date, time, and place of birth to viccimartin@gmail.com.

Hazel Archer-Ginsberg will give a brief overview of the phases in Rudolf Steiner’s life.

We can also look into the 2017 trends if there is interest!

$10 Donation & Snacks to Share Encouraged at the Rudolf Steiner Branch of the Anthroposophical Society 4249 N. Lincoln Ave, Chicago IL. 60618. MAP

For more info. contact Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

***

A timeline of the Life of Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925)  –

25 February 1861 – Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner was born in Kraljevec, an insignificant Hungarian village in what is now Northern Croatia. So it came that he was born in a Slav environment & not in a German-speaking one, a fact which he considered essential for his life’s work. He was the first-born child of the railway telegrapher Johann Steiner & his wife Franciska Blie . He received Roman Catholic baptism two days later, because they thought he might die. This is why the 27th of February 1861 commonly has been considered to be his birthday. It was mainly his mother, a quiet friendly woman, who looked after him in the first years of his life. His father was often doing a shift for three days & nights in a row, relieved of his duties for 24 hours in a state of total exhaustion.

1862 – When Rudolf Steiner was 1½ years old, his father was transferred to Moedling near Vienna.

1863-1869 – 6 months later, his father took up a position as station Manager in Pottschach on the Semmerling line – which for those days was one of the technological most advanced railways. To the end of his life Rudolf Steiner looked at that period with joy & gratitude. It was also in this period that Rudolf Steiner’s sister Leopoldine (1864 – 1924) & his brother Gustav (1866 – 1941) were born. “The scenes amidst which I passed my childhood were marvellous. The prospect embraced the mountains linking Lower Austria with Styria. I lived in this area from the age of two to the age of eight. The most beautiful landscape embedded my childhood“.In contrast to this experience of nature stands the fact that the environment in which he grew up was dominated by his father’s employment. The family lived in the station house, directly in front of the railway tracks.

1866 – Rudolf Steiner’s early clairvoyant experiences must have lead to a feeling of isolation. He described only the first of theses events: My mother’s sister who lived in some distance from our family home committed suicide. Nobody knew about this at the time and my parents didn’t have any message about the tragic death. I saw in a vision the whole event whilst sitting in the station’s waiting room. Later I made some remarks when my parents were around. Their reaction was to say: “You are a stupid boy”. Some days later I noticed when my father becoming very thoughtful whilst reading a letter he had received. Another couple of days later he talked alone with my mother. My mother cried for days after this conversation. It was only some years later when I was informed about the tragic death of my aunt. For the boy this was the beginning of a living in the soul. I distinguished between things and beings “one can see” and such “one can’t see”

 1869 – Rudolf Steiner was eight years old when his father was transferred to Neudoerfl in Hungary, now part of Lower Austria. The family lived a isolated live troubled by sorrow for his younger brother Gustav who turned out to be hearing-impaired, dumb, & learning disabled. It was only through long walks in the surrounding area that the young Rudolf Steiner got to know the inhabitants of the village. The Monks of a nearby monastery particularly fascinated him: “It was at the age of nine when the idea established in my mind that there must be important things I have to learn about in context of the tasks of these monks.Rudolf Steiner’s childhood was influenced by many unanswered questions he carried within himself: Yes, these questions about all kind of things made me a lonely boy.”

1872 – He visited the village school in Neudorfle until 1972. He remained an outsider & never integrated in the class community: “In autumn, everyone would just talk about who harvested how many nuts. The one with the biggest bounty would be the person with the highest status. I found myself at the bottom of this hierarchy. Being the ‘foreigner in the village’ I had no right to be part of this pecking order”. Guidance & help for Rudolf Steiner came through an assistant teacher at the school in Neudoerfl. It was not the man’s outstanding teaching skills that were helpful; through this teacher Rudolf Steiner had access to a geometry book, which he was allowed to study in depth for many weeks: As a child, I felt, without of course expressing it to myself clearly, that knowledge of the spiritual world is something to be grasped in the mind in the same way as geometrical concepts. To understand concepts that are of a pure spiritual nature gave me inner contentment. I know it was through geometry when I experienced happiness for the first time”. Beside the assistant teacher it was the priest who made a lasting impression on the 10-year-old boy. Once he came to the school, gathered a group of the more mature students, which I was considered to belong to, in his little study and explained the Copernican system (…). I was completely taken in by the whole thing (….).Through the station’s telegraph I learned the theory, principles and laws of electricity. Still a boy I learned how to use the telegraph machine.” Following this are the first studies of History, Literature & Mathematics.

October: pupil at the secondary modern school (Realschule) in Wiener Neustadt. Steiner perceives the orderliness & transparency in the scientific & mathematical disciplines as invigorating in view of his first super sensible & childhood clairvoyant experiences whose unfamiliarity triggered many questions.

1876 – Summer: Rudolf Steiner teaches himself shorthand. Autumn: “I gave extra lessons to fellow pupils… The College of Teachers gladly supported this by sending me students since I was considered a ‘good pupil’.”

1877 – Study of Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason during mind-numbing history lessons.

1879 – July: Steiner passes his school living examination with distinction. August: His father’s transferred to Inzersdorf near Vienna to enable the 18-year-old Steiner to study at the Polytechnic. Self study of Kant, Schelling, Hegel, Fichte, Darwin 7 others. The study of Fichte inspires Steiner to first philosophical essays.

1879-1883 – October, 1879: Begin a study course of 8 Terms at the Polytechnic in Vienna, financial support through a student grant. As bread study he decides to aim for secondary school teacher. Nevertheless he visits a variety of philosophical lectures. “At the time I felt obliged to find the truth through philosophy“. While most of the people in his environment regard philosophy as something abstract, for Steiner the spiritual world is a ‘visible’ reality’. “And this is how my view of the spiritual world was received in most places. No one wanted to hear about it“. History of physics, physics, chemistry, mechanics, geology, mineral logy, botany, mathematics, literature & history of literature, politics, zoology, medicine, philosophy are a selection of the of the areas Steiner chose to study. He passed the exams in these disciplines with excellence or distinction. As a penny-less student coming from the country side Steiner found his way into the life of Vienna only step by step & not in all areas. He had no access to the circles of the aristocracy entrepreneurs, industrial workers or the world of opera or big society events. Rudolf Steiner fulfilled his until now unsatisfied thirst for “pure music that wants to be nothing but music by visiting concerts & chamber music. Beethoven became his favored composer, the deadly boring music Wagner’s resenting as barbaric. He followed the political life by visiting public parliament sessions & he also becomes member of a politically orientated student organisation. The sad destiny of some of his fellow students showed him how the dominating public spirit at the time caused strong feelings of hopelessness & pessimism destroyed many lives. “At the time all this could be experienced as the seed that later in Austria lead to the crumbling of the empire”.

Karl Julius Schroer, the professor lecturing German Literature, deeply honored & admired by him, introduced Steiner in a very special way to the ‘German Classic‘ generally & especially to Goethe. For all his life Steiner looked at Goethe as a great personality & idol for the people of his time. In addition he was engaged with philosophical questions & increasingly with questions regarding the theory of recognition, inspired by Fichte‘s research regarding the relationship between spirit (I) & nature Through his intensive work on Schelling‘s contemplations about the essence of a human being, certainty grows within him regarding the ability, “to see the eternal within us in the form of the unchangeable” (quotation by Schelling). Steiner reports about this time (he was 21): “A spiritual view appeared in front of my me that was not based on a dark mystical emotions.It rather was a spiritual activity fully comparable in it’s clarity to the thinking in mathematical terms.I approached a condition of mind that gave me the certainty that I would be able to justify the view of the spiritual world I carried within me in the light of modern scientific thinking.” 

1882 -Autumn: Prof Joseph Kurschner invites Steiner on recommendation by Prof. Karl Julius Schroer, to edit Goethe’s scripts about natural science within ‘German National Literature‘ edited by Kurschner. For Steiner this means the beginning of 1½ decades of Goethe research.

1883 – October: Steiner leaves the Polytechnic without final exam & without finishing his studies despite having successfully past all intermediate examinations. His hope was to lay the foundation for a career in literary studies with his work about Goethe’s natural science scripts. This hope was not fulfilled. 

1884 –The literature experts positively acknowledge the First volume of Goethe’s Scripts About Natural Science, first published in March. April: On request Kurschner’s Steiner agrees to edit articles in the field of mineralogy and later in general natural science in Kurschner’s Conversation Dictionary.

June: Steiner is entrusted with the role of an educator in the household of Ladislaus Specht. This is an important practical educational task that becomes for Steiner a rich source of learning. He becomes friend with the lady of the house, Pauline Specht. She becomes a confidant with whom he can talk about all the things important to him. His position gave him time to establish & maintain social contacts & to pursue out his own work and studies.

1885 – Study of Eduard von Hartmann’s  other philosopher’s work. Rudolf Steiner continues his studies & the editorial work on Goethe’s Scripts about Natural Science. Friendship with RadegundeWalter Fehr.

1886 – By making the acquaintance with the poet Marie Eugenie Delle Gracie, a new circle of society opens up to Steiner. Some of the personalities he meets are lecturers of theology at the University of Vienna who recommended to Steiner to study the philosophies of Aristotle & Thomas of Aquinas. April: The book Baselines of a Theory of Knowledge of Goethe’s Philosophy of life is concluded. It already contains important basic ideas of Steiner’s freedom philosophy.

June: Steiner  accepts a position offered by the Director of the Goethe Archive in Weimar.

1887 – By the beginning of the year severe illness forces Steiner to stop all his activities. The Specht Family however gives all the attention & love he needs for his recovery. Since summer Steiner thoroughly concerns himself with the questions of aesthetics. He especially studies the philosophical aestheticians of the 19th century, under it Eduard von Hartmann with whom he gets in contact. (by letter). The book Baselines of a Theory of Knowledge of Goethe’s Philosophy of life is praised in professional circles, but also criticized – in a fair way –.

Autumn: The beginning of a friendship with Fritz Lemmermayer, who brings him in contact with numerous poets.

1888 – Without neglecting the work he was engaged in previous years, Steiner becomes the editor (informally) for the German Weekly Revue. This gives him the opportunity to discuss publicly questions of politics, literature, philosophy i.e. A review by Steiner of Robert Hamerling’s Epos Homunculus, published in the German Weekly Revue, rejected by the majority of readers as a grotesque work of literature, causes astonishment within the Specht family, since the statements regarding the position of Judaism, understood by Steiner in an objective way, have been considered as a special kind of anti-Semitism. This doesn’t change his friendly relationship with the Specht family. Hamerling expresses his gratitude for the ‘understanding and the excellent article about ‘Homunculus’.

1889 –In this year it is for the first time that Steiner undertakes extensive travelling. It is also his first journey to Germany. In spring he visits Budapest, Weimar in the summer. His work-schedule for the position at the Goethe-Archive is established during this visit to Weimar. He further travels to Berlin (meeting with Eduard von Hartmann), Stuttgart, Munich & Eisenach. At Christmas he visits Hermannstadt where he also gives some lectures. For the first time he encounters Nietzsche’s Work: Beyond Good and Evil’ was the first of Nietzsche’s books I read. I was at same time captivated and repelled by his views. I found it hard to relate to Nietzsche’s way of thinking. I loved his style and courage; what I didn’t like at all was the way he talked about the deepest problems without connecting himself with a conscious spiritual experience”.By the end of the year Steiner gets in contact with the Theosophists in Vienna. Although considering the time spent in this circle as valuable throughout, he doesn’t really endorse the kind of Theosophy practiced, which he characterizes as a ‘spiritual weakness’ that influences the spiritual development in a negative way. Soon afterwards he turns his back to Theosophy & Mystics in order to further his freedom philosophy. Later (1891) he mentioned the “mystic element in which I submerged for a while in a disturbing way in Vienna. At this time questions regarding the riddles of reincarnation take on a more tangible shape. I did struggle with the riddles of repeated lives of a human beings on earth. Some revelations came to me when having met personalities who’s habits of live an characters revealed traces of an essence, entity that couldn’t possibly be explained by their genetic inheritance and the way life experience has shaped them since they where born.”

1890 – March: His acquaintance with the poet Rosa Mayreder leads to a deep friendship & a mutual understanding that allows exchanging his freedom philosophical thoughts & ideas. She shares some of his loneliness in which he fell (already at 1882) caused by the deviation of his views from the usual way of thinking. “I had nobody at the time I could talk too about my views. Another source of redemption from his loneliness originates Goethe’s work in which he finds his own thoughts expressed. During the summer Steiner starts to work on his Thesis, later extended & published with the title Truth and Science. September: Steiner moves to Weimar to commence work at the Goethe – Schiller Archive. Weimar will be his residence until 1897. “I received a warm welcome”. 

1891 – First he appreciated the attractive side of his work: the discovery of new, important or unknown facts. Already in April 1991 it says: The viewing, sorting and classifying in the archive dulls my mind and causes a spiritual discomfort, that almost destroyed any urge to write myself. He considers his Goethe work as a skin, a shell that has become lifeless, and that he wants to leave behind for onceOtherwise my whole existence is going to become a lie and a nuisance: my work and my achievements will not be my own anymore, but those of a miserable puppet”. In October, Steiner begins to work on the Philosophy of Freedom, his major philosophical work. 26th of October: Doctor of Philosophy officially awarded. His thesis, later extended and published under the title: ”Truth and Science”, considered by Steiner as the prelude for a “Philosophy of Freedom”, has the theme: “The basic question of the Science of Cognition in special consideration of Fichte’s Theory of Science”. November: Steiner studies the philosophy of the middle age, “the area in which I considered my knowledge still to be incomplete. Once I feel confident here, the gap between the profound knowledge I have about the ancient time and the newer times will be closed, and only then I may claim to be on solid ground“.

December: In a letter to Pauline Specht (Vienna), Steiner characterizes the mood caused by the circumstances as so powerful to cause him the feeling of ongoing disgust. His working conditions might have contributed to this feeling – the archive was limited to only a few rooms within the castle of Weimar, & his superior was the pettiest of the pettiest- “a real ‘philister’ with the nature of a ‘schoolmaster’, incapable of taking a wider point of view”. – as well as his uncomfortable 2-bedroom flat, & the fact, “to have no one with an understanding I could talk with”.

1892 – January: Today the only thing left to say is, that my book (The Philosophy of Freedom) makes good progress. The disposition and the arrangement of the content are now determined”. Besides his work in the archive, Steiner is also engaged as a writer. He often writes essays & reviews. Not seldom he criticizes in his articles the preaching of moral that is done without any basis of knowledge. Because of this he made himself a number of enemies, but was supported by Ernst Haeckel. His moral views (ethical individualism) may be characterized by the following quotation: A general prescription from the big pharmacy of moral remedies can only be rejected by all those, who really work towards a better future”At the same time he committed himself to edit the work of Schopenhauer & Jean-Paul for the publishing house Cotta. By the middle of the year, Steiner moves to a flat at the place of Anna Eunike, “soon a close friendship developed. In 1899, Steiner married Anna Eunicke. They were later separated; Anna died in 1911. December: Steiner explains to Haeckel something that was also significant for all his later work: “Since I am a writer, I am fighting against any dualism, and I consider it as a task of philosophy, to justify monism scientifically by means of a strictly positive analysis of our cognitive capacity, and also to proof, that all results gained by natural science are the real truth”.

 1893 – While aiming for a teaching position in philosophy at the Polytechnical School in Vienna with increasing enthusiasm, he continues with the previous’ years activities. Also Steiner’s popularity as a lecturer grows also in other towns & cities. On the 15th of June, the election for the ‘Reichstag’ takes place. Steiner comments: “I experience the increase in roughness and ignorance that has shown in the last election as really frightening”. After the completion and the publishing of his Philosophy of Freedom, Steiner asks many personalities under his friends & in the circle of professionals for their opinions & for reviews.

December: “It is now more than three years since I arrived in Weimar, and in the three summers so much strain was laid on me, not allowing me even two weeks to relax without having to work“.

 1894 – Meeting with Haeckel; beginning of correspondence with him.

 1896 – Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche asked Steiner to set the Nietzsche archive in Naumburg in order. Förster-Nietzsche introduced Steiner into the presence of the catatonic philosopher & Steiner, deeply moved, subsequently wrote the book Friedrich Nietzsche, Fighter for Freedom.

 1897 – Steiner left the Weimar archives & moved to Berlin. He became owner, chief editor, & active contributor to the literary journal Magazin für Literatur, where he hoped to find a readership sympathetic to his philosophy. His work in the magazine was not well received by its readership, including the alienation of subscribers following Steiner’s unpopular support of Émile Zola in the Dreyfus Affair. The journal lost more subscribers when Steiner published extracts from his correspondence with anarchist writer John Henry Mackay. Dissatisfaction with his editorial style eventually led to his departure from the magazine.

 1899 – Instructor at the Berlin “Workers’ School of Education” (Arbeiter-Bildungsschule). Steiner  meets the Mystery of Golgotha

1900-Beginning of activities as a lecturer on various Anthroposophic themes under the invitation of the Berlin Theosophic Society, transmitting only the results of his own original esoteric research.

1902Nominated the General Secretary of the German Theosophical Society. In the same day, gives a lecture with title “Anthroposophy“.

1902-1912-Intensive activity as a lecturer in Berlin & in whole Europe. Marie von Sievers becomes his constant cooperator.

1903-Foundation of the Luzifer journal, later Luzifer-Gnosis (GA 10-12, 34)

1905-First writings on the threefold social organization (in GA 34)

1906-Meeting with Edouard Schuré; Marie von Sievers had translated some of his works.

1907-Organizes the world conference of the Theosophical Society in Munich, where he introduces artistic activities for the first time.

1910-1913-Writes & directs his 4 Mystery Dramas, one each year, in Munich (GA 14)

1912-Introduction of the new art of Eurythmy (GA 277a) & Speech Formation (GA 281)

1912 -13Separation from the Theosophical Society & foundation of the Anthroposophical Society.

1913-1923Construction of the first Goetheanum in Dornach, Switzerland, a true work of art hand carved in wood

1914Marriage with Marie von Sivers

1914-1924-In lectures in Dornach, Berlin & many cities all over Europe, gives indication for the renewal of many areas of human activity: art, education, sciences, social life, medicine, pharmacology, therapies, agriculture, architecture & theology.

1919-Intensive activities as a writer & lecturer on his ideas on social renewal, the Threefold Commonwealth (GA 23, 328-341) mainly in Southern Germany. Foundation of the Free Waldorf School (Freie Waldorfschule) in Stuttgart (GA 293-295), directed by him up to his death

1920-1st course for physicians (GA 312), beginning the application to what became Anthroposophical Medicine.

1921Foundation of the “Das Goetheanum” weekly, with his regular contributions (GA 36, 260a). Foundation of the first Anthroposophical Clinic, in Arlesheim by Ita Wegman

1922– Foundation of the religious renewal movement “The Christian Community”, by clergymen under his orientation. On NYE the Goetheanum burns down.

1923– The Christmas Conference, foundation of the new General Anthroposophical Society (Allgemeine Anthroposophische Gesellschaft).Beginning of the design & gypsum modeling of the 2nd Goetheanum, to be built in 1925-28 after his death, in reinforced concrete.

1923-1925-Publishes every week in Das Goetheanum his autobiography (GA 28), which would remain unfinished (covers his life up to 1907). In cooperation with Dr. Ita Wegman, writes the book on Anthroposophical Medicine (GA 27).

1924Course on agriculture in Koberwitz (GA 327), beginning of bio-dynamic farming. Course on Curative Education (GA 317A)Last lecture Sept. 9 beginning of his fatal disease.

1925Death in Dornach on March 30. His published work, including lecture cycles, comprises more than 350 titles.

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