Category Archives: Remembering

October Alchemy

Autumn, Birth / Death Days, Quote, Remembering

~cots Michaelmas 26 Karl Koning

Greetings friends – There is so much to contemplate during this Michaelmas Season. Virtue for SEPT 21 – OCT 20 – Contentment becomes Equanimity. OPPOSITE: Dissatisfaction

At this time, the flowers wither, fruit & nuts fall from the trees & decompose, leaving their empty husks on the ground; grains are sorted or stored before being sown, to ensure a new cycle of growth. This process of decomposition & sorting also concerns the human being.

Just as the fruit is separated from the tree & the seed from the fruit, so is the soul separated from the body, in sleep, in meditation, in death…The body is the envelope -the wrapping – & the soul is the seed that is planted in the soil of the spiritual world.

The human being is a fruit…& when we are ripe, we must not fall to the ground like the fruits & seeds of the earth, we must journey with consciousness into the spiritual world.

Autumn is the season for that separation of which Hermes Trismegistus speaks: ‘You shall separate the subtle from the gross, gently and with great skill.’

To separate the subtle from the gross is to separate the spiritual from the material, & the whole of nature undergoes this process of alchemy at Autumn-Tide, in preparation for the coming of new light & life. And yet most people have no idea what to cut out or re-cycle: they swallow everything whole, & are rarely content.

And so this is what we have to learn from Michael: Discernment! Which is also the counter measure to cast out Ahriman – We must discern what to choose, & how to separate the pure from the impure, the useful from the useless, the harmful from the beneficial.

The absence of judgment in this respect is the cause of many misfortunes. Michaelmas is resplendently rich in meaning for those who understand that it can bring them the courage to cultivate true freedom & liberation.

So put the sword of Michael to use, to bless & bestow, as well as to cut away what does not serve – To separate the wheat from the chaff -To sharpen the mind & protect the heart.

Stand as a peaceful warrior for change

~hag

5 October 1872 – the Birthday of Friedrich Rittelmeyer, a Protestant German minister, & theologian; friend of Rudolf Steiner; co-founder & driving force of The Christian Community.

Growing up in Frankish Schweinfurt – his father was a Lutheran minister – it was already clear to him as a child that he wanted to go into a religious profession. From 1890 Rittelmeyer studied philosophy & Protestant theology. His teacher Oswald Külpe, encouraged him to write his dissertation on Friedrich Nietzsche.

He also went on a study trip to meet theologians & socially-engaged ministers of the time, as well as members of the Moravian Church. From 1895 to 1902 he was at the Stadtvikar in Würzburg. In 1903 he took up the preachership of Heilig-Geist-Kirche in Nuremberg. There he married Julie Kerler on 5 April 1904. Rittelmeyer worked & closely collaborated with Christian Geyer, the head preacher of the Sebalduskirche, together they produced two joint volumes of sermons. Around 1910 they both led discussions with the Bavarian church council on a liberal interpretation of the Bible.

Also inn 1910 the Nuremberg school teacher Michael Bauer enabled Rittelmeyer to have his first encounter with Rudolf Steiner, the founder of anthroposophy. Rittelmeyer described the encounter & discussed Steiner’s personality & work in his book ‘Rudolf Steiner Enters my Life’.

Rudolf Steiner Comes Into My Life by Friedrich Rittelmeyer

“It was on August 28th, 1911, the anniversary of Goethe’s birthday, that I saw Rudolf Steiner for the first time. I had to go on a short journey and I managed to attend the Theosophical Summer Conference at Munich on the Sunday. For six months, practically all my spare time had been devoted to reading Dr. Steiner’s works, but I still had no thought as yet of joining the Society. In spite of this, I was allowed to attend all the meetings without any kind of obligation. When I went into the room I was surprised at the atmosphere I found there. The audience, for the most part, gave one an impression of strangeness. A certain type of passive, sensation-mongering mentality troubled me. Especially when I saw men with long hair, my impulse was to run away. Later on, all these things changed decidedly for the better, when the “theosophical” shells were laid aside and Rudolf Steiner began to attract more and more men of a scientific turn of mind. He certainly suffered a great deal in those earlier years, but out of respect for personal freedom he did not on principle enter into external trivialities of this kind and tried gradually to educate the people from within.

What pleased me was the evidence of a mood of festive devotion. It was not difficult to see that this was a festival of man. These people were filled with joy that they were in the presence of one whom they felt to be quite out of the common, a leader worthy of all respect, and who yet went about among them as a man among other men. Although I felt an outsider, and was repelled by many things I saw, I was interested to
find how genuinely and sincerely a man was being regarded as an “event” in humanity. Everything breathed in honour of manhood, for these people felt themselves in the presence of a great figure of the human race. Something of this kind must have been experienced before one can realise the silent effect which a single individual can have upon those around him. This was particularly in evidence during the dramatic performances. Those who took part were not presenting their art with an eye to Press and public, but as if they felt a higher being looking through them, and
they were therefore striving without personal vanity to offer their sacrifices in the revealed presence of a Divine world. Quite a new conception of art as worship arose within me...

Here, in very truth, was a kingly mind in the realms of knowledge, far-seeing and mighty in its freedom. He let a science of Nature come to flower around us, a wisdom far more stimulating than the dead knowledge of the day and a science in which religion could breathe anew...

In everything I said and asked I found myself in the presence of an unmistakable expert. There was nothing I could say that he did not seem already to know. Whereas in other conversations I had had with outstanding men I always refrained from speaking about certain experiences because one was accustomed to find no understanding, here I could touch upon whatever intimate and delicate subjects I liked and was always answered by genuine human kindliness and a superior power that could not but inspire every confidence...

If only people could have seen how he spoke of these matters in personal conversation! His great dark eyes became even more alert. With a consciousness of responsibility than which nothing greater or purer could be imagined, he spoke every word with hesitation. It was as if, all unseen, he had passed into a temple where he was acting before the eyes of higher powers. One could have wished that all the sensitive minds of humanity had been present to witness such a spectacle! If the teaching of reincarnation were to be renewed in a Christian sense it could not have been entrusted to a more scrupulous mind...

Only a warped nature could fail to perceive that here one was standing in the very light of truth. The man before us was telling of a world in which he himself was living. The many hundreds of sermons I had heard about Christ came up in the background of my mind. They faded into shadows. “We speak of that which we do know and testify of that which we have seen.” — A new proclamation of Christ was there. A new Christ-era was dawning — as yet in the first faint rays of the promised morning. The lecture itself spoke of this — spoke without the least trace of selfish longing for what has yet to come, proclaiming simply what is and would like to bestow itself upon us. Anyone who witnessed this could doubt no longer but that a fully authorized servant of Christ was standing before him...

There was also far too much easy chattering about anthroposophical truths and a great deal of blind following of the leader of Anthroposophy. Such is the tragedy that is bound up with greatness, a tragedy that will always be there when a great man appears. But Rudolf Steiner never failed to let it be known that the men he liked best were those who stood before him in freedom and self-assurance. Even wilfulness did not altogether displease him, although he could not regard it as a quality likely to promote the cause of Anthroposophy. The way in which he combined the pressing need of the cause with respect for personal freedom always called forth my unqualified admiration. If it were a matter of choosing, he invariably put the freedom of a man before the needs of the cause. For he regarded the future temple of mankind as lost if it were built upon mediæval foundations...”

In 1916 Rittelmeyer was sent to the Neue Kirche in Berlin, working as preacher there. He  opposed the First World War, & with 4 other Berlin theologians signed a proclamation of peace & understanding on the occasion of Reformation Day (October 1917).

In September 1922 he established the “Movement for Religious Revival” (Christengemeinschaft) Rittelmeyer acted as its first “Erzoberlenker” or Head Priest, & from its base in Stuttgart was the leading envoy right up to his death. To do this great deed he sacrificed his eminent position within the Lutheran Chruch, in order to lead The Christian Community, an international movement for religious renewal founded with the co-operation of Rudolf Steiner.

1921 – French journalist Jules Sauerwein, Interviewed Rudolf Steiner about the cause of WW1. ‘Of all the kings, monarchs, presidents, ministers, scholars, artists, writers and prominent figures in business whom I have come to know in the course of the decades of my profession, none has made such a deep impression on me as the German philosopher Rudolf Steiner.’

ESSAYS ON THE THREEFOLD DIVISION OF THE SOCIAL ORGANISM, GA 24

New facts about the prehistory of the World War

An interview by “Matin” reporter Jules Sauerwein with Dr. Rudolf Steiner on the unpublished memoirs of the late German Chief of General Staff von Moltke 5 October 1921

“You know that if your opponents are to be believed, the Chief of General Staff is said to have lost his head first and then the Battle of the Marne because of you.”

That is the question that I asked the famous spiritual researcher and sociologist Rudolf Steiner, born German-Austrian. I have had sincere admiration and friendly feelings for him for more than fifteen years. It gave me great satisfaction at the time to translate several of his theosophical works into French. Whenever my travels permit, I do not fail to visit Dr. when passing through Basel. Steiner in Dornach to pay a short visit.

This time I met him again at the strange and enormous building, which was given the name Goetheanum by his students in honor of Goethe as a forerunner of spiritual science. I have already written in “Matin” about the man as well as about the building and its wonderful location, on the last foothills of the Jura crowned by castle ruins.

Rudolf Steiner had just returned from Germany after giving lectures on his teachings to thousands of enthusiastic listeners in Stuttgart and Berlin. On the same day in Dornach he received a group of 120 theologians with whom he discussed theological and religious questions. A number of these theologians, on the basis of Dr. Steiner’s teachings to tackle a redesign of religious life.

Dr. Steiner was currently working on a huge group in wood sculpture depicting Christ and the underlying seductive powers, Lucifer and Ahriman. This is one of the most impressive creations I have ever seen; it will form the central end of the smaller domed room in the Goetheanum. As I watched the listeners climb the hill in small groups to gather for the lecture, Dr. Steiner from the attacks of his opponents. Clericals and pan-Germans and fanatical followers of various religious denominations fight against him with every weapon and at every opportunity.

The fear of the truth

When I asked him directly the question about General von Moltke, he directed his piercing eyes at me, which looked at me from a face furrowed by forty years of intense intellectual struggle.

«What you tell me doesn’t surprise me. No means will be shied away from to expel me from Germany and possibly also from Switzerland. These attacks come from a variety of backgrounds. But insofar as they extend to my relationships with Moltke, they have a very specific goal. They want to prevent the publication of some notes that Moltke made for his family before his death and which I should arrange for publication in bookstores with the consent of Mrs. von Moltke.

These memoirs should have been published in 1919. Immediately before its publication, a person in charge of the Prussian diplomatic representation in Stuttgart visited me to tell me that this publication was impossible and that they would not want it in Berlin. Later a general who had been in positions with General von Moltke and Wilhelm II came to me and gave me the same ideas. I protested against this and wanted to ignore it. I thought of turning to Count von Brockdorff-Rantzau, who was then in Versailles; but couldn’t achieve anything. My efforts were all the more unsuccessful because at the same time Ms. von Moltke was approached with ideas that she could not escape.

Why these fears? These memoirs are by no means an indictment of the imperial government. But what they show, perhaps worse, is that the imperial government was in a state of complete confusion and under an incomprehensibly careless and ignorant leadership. One can apply the sentence that I wrote down in my foreword to the responsible personalities: <It was not what they did that contributed to the calamity, but the entire nature of their personalities.>

I can add that it was due to the peculiar circumstances that ultimately the weight of the decisive resolutions fell on a single man, the Chief of General Staff, who saw himself forced to do his military duty because politics was at a standstill had arrived. I never spoke to him about political or military questions before Moltke resigned. It was only later, when he was seriously ill, that he naturally spoke openly to me about all these matters, and since this will interest you, I will tell you what he told me himself and what can also be seen from his unpublished memoirs.

At the end of June 1914, Moltke, who had been chief of staff since 1905, went to Karlsbad for health reasons. Until his death he knew nothing about a Potsdam meeting on July 5th or 6th. He only returned to Berlin in good health after the ultimatum to Serbia. Since his return, he said, he had been firmly convinced that Russia was going to attack. He clearly foresaw the tragic development that things were bound to take, that is, he believed in the participation of France and England in the world conflict. He wrote a memorandum for the emperor that pointed out the need for measures to be taken. The German General Staff’s plan had essentially been fixed for a long time. It was set up by Moltke’s predecessor, von Schlieffen. You know its basics: Large masses were to be thrown against France in order to achieve a rapid decision in the West at any cost. A weak defensive army was planned against Russia, which was to be replenished later following the decision in the western theater of war.

Beguiled people

Von Moltke had changed his predecessor’s plan in one important point. While Schlieffen had planned to march through Belgium and Holland at the same time, Moltke had renounced Holland in order to give Germany breathing space in the event of a blockade.

When Moltke came to the castle on Friday, July 31st, he found people completely confused. As he said, he had the impression that he found himself in the position of having to make a decision all on his own. On that day, the Kaiser did not yet sign the mobilization order, an order which in Germany was tantamount to a declaration of war, because as soon as this order was given, everything, including the first operation at certain hours, took place with an inexorable automatism. For that day, Wilhelm II contented himself with proclaiming the impending danger of war. The following day, on Saturday, August 1st, at four o’clock in the afternoon, he summoned Moltke again, and over the next six hours the following drama unfolded.

Moltke meets the Kaiser in the presence of Bethmann Hollweg, whose knees were literally shaking, the War Minister Falkenhayn, General von Plessen, Lyncker and a few others. The Kaiser strongly objected to the Chief of Staff’s intentions. He says he received the best news from England. Not only would England remain neutral – as George V informed him – but she would even prevent France from taking part in the war. Under these conditions it would be logical to throw the entire army against Russia. No, Moltke replied, the plan must be carried out in the East and the West as it was determined if we do not want to bring about the greatest disaster.

The technical reasons

The objections don’t affect Moltke; he refuses to change anything. He argues that the mobilization order must be followed without any delay. He does not believe in the English telegrams, and with the mobilization order in hand that William II has just signed, he is dismissed, leaving the others in a state of complete confusion. So it came about that the decision to break out of war had to be made for purely military reasons. On the way from the castle to the general staff, his car is overtaken by an imperial automobile. Moltke is recalled on behalf of the emperor. The emperor is more excited than ever. He shows his chief of staff a telegram from England. He believes he can see with absolute certainty from this telegram that that the conflict would be confined to the East and that England and France would remain neutral. <There must, he concludes, <immediately be given an order to the army not to act in the West.> Moltke’s answer is that an army cannot be subjected to the alternative of orders and counter-orders. Then, while Moltke stood by, the Kaiser turned to the wing adjutant on duty and ordered him to immediately convey the order to the command of the 16th Division in Trier that they should not march into Luxembourg. Moltke goes home. Shocked because he expects the greatest disaster to come from such measures, he sits down at his table. He explains that he cannot take any measures for the army in accordance with the Emperor’s telephone order. This order is brought to you by an adjutant for your signature. He refuses to sign and postpones the order. He remained in a state of dull exhaustion until 11 o’clock in the evening, even though he had returned from Carlsbad in good health. The bell will ring at 11 a.m. The emperor asks about him again. He immediately goes to the castle. Wilhelm II, who had already retired, throws on a dressing gown and says: Everything has changed. Calamity is approaching. The King of England has just declared in a new telegram that he has been misunderstood and that he assumes no obligation on either his behalf or that of France. He concludes by saying: Now you can do whatever you want. And now the war begins. despite the fact that he had returned from Carlsbad completely healthy. The bell will ring at 11 a.m. The emperor asks about him again. He immediately goes to the castle. Wilhelm II, who had already retired, throws on a dressing gown and says: Everything has changed. Calamity is approaching. The King of England has just declared in a new telegram that he has been misunderstood and that he assumes no obligation on either his behalf or that of France. He concludes by saying: Now you can do whatever you want. And now the war begins. despite the fact that he had returned from Carlsbad completely healthy. The bell will ring at 11 a.m. The emperor asks about him again. He immediately goes to the castle. Wilhelm II, who had already retired, throws on a dressing gown and says: Everything has changed. Calamity is approaching. The King of England has just declared in a new telegram that he has been misunderstood and that he assumes no obligation on either his behalf or that of France. He concludes by saying: Now you can do whatever you want. And now the war begins. Everything has changed. Calamity is approaching. The King of England has just declared in a new telegram that he has been misunderstood and that he assumes no obligation on either his behalf or that of France. He concludes by saying: Now you can do whatever you want. And now the war begins. Everything has changed. Calamity is approaching. The King of England has just declared in a new telegram that he has been misunderstood and that he assumes no obligation on either his behalf or that of France. He concludes by saying: Now you can do whatever you want. And now the war begins.

Gloomy omens

In the month of August I saw General von Moltke once, on August 27th in Koblenz. Our conversation revolved around purely human matters. The German army was still in full victory. There was also no reason to talk about what wasn’t there yet. The Battle of the Marne unfolded later. I hadn’t seen Moltke again until then. It took place under conditions which must have profoundly shaken von Moltke’s expectations. During the test maneuvers he had several times carried out a cautious advance on the right wing, which could have been considered for a march on Paris. Kluck, who had overall command of the right wing, advanced too quickly three times. Every time Moltke said to him, If you advance just as quickly at the crucial moment, we will lose the war in an emergency. When Kluck’s army was threatened with being surrounded, Moltke found himself gripped by a terrible premonition. The thought occurred to him: the war could be lost for Germany. That seems to me to be part of the <psychology> of the course of the war. When von Moltke returned to headquarters on September 13th, he gave the impression of a deeply shaken man. Those around the emperor thought he was sick. From that moment on, Falkenhayn was in fact in command, without having the official title. Later, when Moltke had to stay in bed, Wilhelm II visited him. Am I still in charge of the operations? he asked the emperor. “I actually believe that you still are,” Wilhelm II replied.

But now a new example of the opinion that people had of Wilhelm II in his own environment. One day, when von Moltke described to me the feelings of deep suffering he felt returning via Belgium after the capture of Antwerp, I asked him for the first time about the invasion of Belgium. How come, I asked. that a war minister could claim in the Reichstag that the plan to invade Belgium did not exist. This minister, replied Moltke, did not know my plan, but the Chancellor was up to date. And the emperor? Never, said Moltke: he was too talkative and indiscreet. He would have told the whole world! » ~Jules Sauerwein.

PHILOSOPHY, COSMOLOGY & RELIGION
GA 215, Foreword

The lecture cycle now being published in its entirety for the first time in English has always been known as the “French Course” for an interesting reason — although it is directed to anthroposophists everywhere as much as any other of Rudolf Steiner’s major cycles. The course was given in September, 1922 exclusively to members of the Society, and it was held in the old Goetheanum. French members were specially invited, and a considerable number of them were present. A French translation was provided by Jules Sauerwein, a distinguished bilingual French member, editor of Le Matin, the leading Parisian newspaper of the time, whose sister Alice was to become in the following year the first General Secretary of the Anthroposophical Society in France. Determined to spare no effort to make the cycle, difficult and detailed though it was, comprehensible to the French members present, Rudolf Steiner every night prepared an outline of what he was to say, and gave it to Jules Sauerwein the following morning, so that he could study it and decide how best he could translate it into French. During the lectures Steiner paused three or four times to allow him to translate the gist of what he had said, a procedure he followed also with George Adams Kauffman during these years when the audience was composed of English-speaking members…

The outline prepared by Rudolf Steiner for Jules Sauerwein has survived, and it is extremely interesting to compare it with the course. Steiner explained on several occasions that when he lectured he spoke always directly out of his supersensible perception of the spiritual worlds and could never speak out of what he remembered or had given previously. It will be evident that he did not deviate from his rule even when he had given his translator an outline of what the night before he had decided he would say. Especially the last highly esoteric lectures of the course when he speaks of the influence of the Christ in earth evolution go so much farther than the outline that Sauerwein must have felt he had been given little enough to help him through his exceptionally difficult task.” ~ Stewart C. Easton

5 October 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”: The last-quarter Moon awaits night owls, as it hangs over late-rising Gemini

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

International World Teachers’ Day

heraclius-returns-the-true-cross-to-jerusalem-anachronistically-accompanied-by-saint-helena-15th-century-spain

610 – Coronation of Byzantine Emperor Heraclius, responsible for introducing Greek as the Eastern Empire’s official language. The year Heraclius came to power, the empire was threatened on multiple frontiers. Heraclius drove the Persians out of Asia Minor and pushed deep into their territory, defeating them decisively in 627 at the Battle of Nineveh. Then peaceful relations were restored to the two deeply strained empires.

Heraclius soon experienced a new event, the Muslim conquests. Within a short period of time, the Arabs conquered Mesopotamia, Armenia & Egypt.

Heraclius entered diplomatic relations with the Croats & Serbs in the Balkans. He tried to repair the schism in the Christian church by promoting a compromise doctrine called Monothelitism. Eventually, however, this project of unity was rejected by all sides of the dispute.

Heraclius was long remembered in the Western church for his reputed feat in recovering the True Cross, which had been captured by the Persians.

After a tour of the Empire Heraclius returned the cross on March 21, 630. For Christians of the Western Medieval Europe, Heraclius was the “first crusader”. The iconography of the emperor appeared in the sanctuary at Mont Saint-Michel. The story was included in the Golden Legend, the famous 13th century compendium of hagiography, and he is sometimes shown in art showing scenes of Heraclius & Constantine I’s mother Saint Helena, traditionally responsible for the excavation of the cross.

The scene usually shown is Heraclius carrying the cross; according to the Golden Legend he insisted on doing this as he entered Jerusalem, against the advice of the Patriarch. At first, when he was on horseback (shown above), the burden was too heavy, but after he dismounted & removed his crown it became miraculously light, & the barred city gate opened of its own accord

~Fra Filippo Lippi

6th Century – Feast day of Saint Placidus & Saint Maurus, disciples of Saint Benedict. Legend has it that Saint Maurus was sent a dream – an order from Saint Benedict’s to rescue Placidus from drowning. Maurus ran across the surface of the lake below the monastery, & drew Placidus safely to shore.

1789 – French Revolution: Women of Paris march to Versailles to confront Louis XVI of France about his refusal to promulgate the decrees on the abolition of feudalism, demand bread, & have the King & his court moved to Paris.

1793 – French Revolution: Christianity is disestablished in France

1864 – The Indian city of Calcutta is almost totally destroyed by a cyclone; 60,000 die

1948 – The 1948 Ashgabat earthquake kills 110,000, equivalent to almost 10% of the USSR’s Turkmen population. Due to censorship by the national (Soviet Turkmen) government, the event was not widely reported in the USSR’s media. Historians tend to agree that the ban on reporting the extent of the casualties & damage did not allow the central Soviet government to allocate enough financial resources to adequately respond

1966 – Near Detroit, Michigan, there is a partial core meltdown at the Enrico Fermi demonstration nuclear breeder reactor

1970 – The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is founded

1982 – Chicago Tylenol murders: Johnson & Johnson initiates a nationwide product recall in the United States for all products in its Tylenol brand after several bottles in Chicago are found to have been laced with cyanide, resulting in seven deaths

1986 – Israeli secret nuclear weapons are revealed. The British newspaper The Sunday Times runs Mordechai Vanunu’s story on its front page under the headline: “Revealed — the secrets of Israel’s nuclear arsenal”

All Souls Festival – Election Day 7 November 2023

Community Prep-Stir / Potluck / Bon-fire

Celebrating: The Festival of the Dead, & Martinmas

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

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

RSVP Hazel@ReverseRitual.com

Annular solar eclipse total phases composite panorama during Totality , moon covers the sun’s visible outer edges to form a “ring of fire” shot using mylar solar film , very rare natural event Sun, Moon and Earth are aligned. A total eclipse , An annular eclipse , A hybrid eclipse, partial eclipse

Save the Dates for Community Workings TBA:

October 14Annular Solar Eclipse
October 21-22Orionids Meteor Shower Predicted Peak
October 23Venus at Greatest Western Elongation
October 28Full Hunter’s Moon and Partial Lunar Eclipse

The 1st New Moon after the Autumnal Equinox – Saturday, Oct. 14, 2023, annular solar eclipse

Global Event:Annular Solar Eclipse
Local Type:Partial Solar Eclipse in Cahokia Mounds State Historic SIte, Illinois
Begins:Sat, Oct 14, 2023 at 10:32 am
Maximum:Sat, Oct 14, 2023 at 11:57 am 0.634 Magnitude
Ends:Sat, Oct 14, 2023 at 1:27 pm
Duration:2 hours, 55 minutes

Lunar Eclipse Oct 28, 2023

Lunar Eclipse Mar 25, 2024

The reprise of the 2017 Great American Eclipse Monday, April 8, 2024, total solar eclipse

Global Event: Total Solar Eclipse
Local Type: Total Solar Eclipse in Fort Worth, Texas
Begins: Mon, Apr 8, 2024 at 12:22 pm
Maximum: Mon, Apr 8, 2024 at 1:41 pm 1.005 Magnitude
Ends: Mon, Apr 8, 2024 at 3:01 pm
Duration: 2 hours, 39 minutes
Totality: 2 minutes, 34 seconds

Lunar Eclipse Sep 18, 2024

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Consecration of the Human Being

Community, Poetry, Remembering, Rudolf Steiner Quote

~Alma Yamazaki

~I hear the words that shatter space
My tongue curls around the tone
of Iron rising from the rust
in the oblique angle
of the Autumning sun…
There
the Prime Principality beckons…
~hag

Happy Birthday to the Christian Community, founded on this day 101 years ago TODAY in 1922!

Rudolf Steiner joyfully accepted the very first inquiry from young theologians, Gertrud Spörri & Johannes Werner Klein. And in a mood of devoted willingness he give the first Priest course.

Already in March 1920 Rudolf Steiner stressed to Gertrud Spörri – at the time of the first doctors’ course – that he would be pleased about a possible lecture cycle for the renewal of religious life. He said that he could speak in a more intimate manner than he could with the doctors.

Was it because of Rudolf Steiner’s own Christ experience, or because he was at home in the ritual-sacramental practice thru his work with the Misraim Service?

In looking at the whole anthroposophical movement, the young priests who founded The Christian Community, had a special closeness to Rudolf Steiner. He spoke to them in an especially intensive, intimate way, with an emphasis out of his own biography, in spite of the objectivity with which he developed the content.

‘So, now that you are full of plans, let us begin,’ Steiner said on June 15, 1921; speaking of ‘our cause’; ‘our meetings’; as well as the necessity that it take place only if ‘we can find enough people’; ‘then we will make progress.’

Rudolf Steiner was the spiritual leader, the communicator of the insights out of the supersensible world, making these insights freely available.

He never spoke to the doctors concerning ‘our cause’; or even to the Waldorf teachers, whose school he invested so much time & love for the children. But in his teaching of the theologians, they experienced him as radiant, joyful, knowledgeable & totally in his element, ‘like a fish in water,’ as Emanuel Zeylmans van Emmichoven once said. ~Peter Selg

Here is an account by Rudolf Steiner: “At the end of September and beginning of October 1921, there assembled at the Goetheanum a number of German theological students who bore in their hearts the impulse for a religious renewal in the Christian sense. The work that was begun then found its fulfilment in September 1922.

The hours spent with these students, in the small hall of the south wing – the very spot where later the fire was first discovered (The Goetheanum was destroyed by arson on the New Year’s Night 1922 – 1923) – were for me an experience that I cannot but reckon as one of the solemn festivals of my life. There, in company with a group of men and women fired with a noble enthusiasm it was possible to enter on the path that carries the knowledge of the spirit into religious experience.” ~Rudolf Steiner on the founding of The Christian Community. From “Growing Point – The Story of the Foundation of The Christian Community” by Alfred Heidenreich~

The celebration of the first Act of Consecration of Man (the Christian Community Mass) constituted the birth of The Christian Community on 16 September 1922 in Dornach, Switzerland, guided into being through the immeasurable & selfless help of Dr. Rudolf Steiner.

From Rudolf Stiener to the Priests: “My dear friends, take this into your souls: the Act of Consecration is to become alive. Through this you will earn the right to place yourselves in the earth’s becoming and through the Act of Consecration be present within the earth’s becoming. Then may you express the following truth: If this Act of Consecration is not performed then the earth will waste away and remain without nourishment. It would be just as if no plants would grow. Plants grow in the physical world; the Act of Consecration of Man must grow in the spiritual realm. If it was not enacted there on this higher level it would be the same as if on the lower level of the physical earth no plants would grow. A human-being only has the right to say this when he or she succeeds in continuously enlivening the Act of Consecration so that this self-expressed word ‘human-being’ has been achieved in the correct manner and being and weaving, within the earthly existence, through achieving the three steps of inner soul development…” ~COURSE FOR PRIESTS OF THE CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY, GA 345, Lecture III, 13 July 1923, Stuttgart

16 September 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”

Lectures by Rudolf Steiner on this date

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Intense Acrylic Storm Paintings Portray the Power of Nature
Joo Campo

1732– In Campo Maior, Portugal, a storm hits the Armory & a violent explosion ensues, killing two thirds of its inhabitants over 30,000 people!

1893 – Settlers make a land run for prime land in the Cherokee Strip in Oklahoma

1908 – The General Motors Corporation is founded.

1920 – The Wall Street bombing: A bomb in a horse wagon explodes in front of the J. P. Morgan building in New York City killing 38 & injuring 400. The bombing was never solved, although investigators & historians believe it was carried out by Galleanists (Italian anarchists), a group responsible for a series of bombings the previous year. The attack was related to postwar social unrest, labor struggles, & anti-capitalist agitation in the United States

1947 – Typhoon Kathleen hits Saitama, Tokyo, at least 1,930 killed

1961 – The United States National Hurricane Research Project drops eight cylinders of silver iodide into the eyewall of Hurricane Esther. Wind speed reduces by 10%, giving rise to Project Stormfury

1961 – Typhoon Nancy, with possibly the strongest winds ever measured in a tropical cyclone, makes landfall in Osaka, Japan, killing 173 people

1977 – Deathday of Maria Callas, Greek operatic soprano

1978 – The 7.4 Mw earthquake affects the city of Tabas, Iran with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent). At least 15,000 people were killed

1987 – The Montreal Protocol is signed to protect the ozone layer from depletion

2004 – Hurricane Ivan makes landfall in Gulf Shores, Alabama as a Category 3 hurricane, killing 124

30 September 2023 –

Our Annual Michaelmas Festival & Zinniker Farm Day

Biodynamic preparation making and Michaelmas 2023 –

Food for Thought

The time for biodynamic preparation making is come up again very soon.
We will be making and burying the chamomile, yarrow and dandelion compost preparations. This offers hands on activity. We will be walking through grass and work in soil. Please dress accordingly and be ready to get dirty.

After the potluck join Hazel Archer-Ginsberg in an experiential activity at the bon-fire called: Food for Thought –

Bounty: What spiritual gifts have you harvested in your life so far this year?
Farewells: What no longer serves? What is over? Say good-bye and thank you.
Preserves: What will you keep as seed for the future?

Date: September 30th, 2023 at the Zinniker Farm
Time: 1:30pm, potluck dinner
Please bring a dish to share
Suggested donation: $15-25 for more info.

Bio~hag
Why ReverseRitual?
What is Anthroposophy?
Tip Jar
I Think Speech Podcast
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World Turning 9/11

Biography, Remembering, Rudolf Steiner Quote

Listen to this on the ‘I Think Speech’ Podcast

Most folks can remember where they were, on that September morning, 22 years & counting ago.

It was autumn, & the new school year had just started. The Perseid meteor showers had been weak in 2001. Michaelmas was on my mind. My husband & I had slept late that day. My morning mediation was scattered, distracted. I went into the kitchen to make breakfast, my daughter, who was not yet 2 years old, was playing up in her room, when the phone rang. It was my friend Rowan. She was crying & whispering: ‘Turn on your TV’. I laughed & said ‘Rowan what is it? You know we don’t watch the tube”. She said ‘O Hazel honey, just turn it on’.

We were in shock. I don’t have to go into what we all felt at that world turning moment.

We tuned off the TV, & I called to see if school was still in session. The folks at the Chicago Waldorf School said, yes, stressing how we all needed to keep the media away from the young ones. In a daze I got the girl ready for our parent/child class. While the children played, the parents sat, quiet, nodding to each other, holding the sacred space for the innocents, speaking only with our eyes about what we had seen.

When I got home my husband said the 2nd tower was hit -The horrendous images repeating in an endless loop on every screen.

Miguel Tio

For many days after, when I would take my girl for walks, or wherever I was, – at work, at the market, I felt a deepened connection to my fellow human beings. People looked each other in the eyes. Folks were kind, helpful, really considerate, even in traffic. We were all brothers & sisters, bonded by this world altering event.

We were all one. Humanity united that day.

These Powerful Photos Capture The Bravery And Selflessness Of 9/11 First Responders

In trying to make sense of it all, I thought, perhaps this horrible tragedy would become a catalyst for true change. I saw it as a loosening of our collective etheric bodies, providing an opportunity for the angels to work with us, opening humanity to a threshold experience, an initiation, preparing us for the sister/brotherhood of the next epoch.

Remember how still, & quiet it was under clear blue skies in those 1st few days, after, when all the air traffic was halted? Peaceful, heightened, open. 

But soon the shock, & vulnerable open eyed connection gave way to patriotic rhetoric; hateful & boiling, it radiated out infecting the planet.  And anyone not jumping on the war wagon was called unpatriotic / trader / ’conspiracy theory’ lunatic, & roundly silenced. 

Lies became truth. Phantoms became reality. Blood was exchanged for oil. Corporations became people. Our civil liberties were bought & sold. Homeland security invaded our right to privacy – The human soul oppressed by systematic illusion. 

Never mind that VP Dick Cheney was running the largest war-games exercise at the same time as the ‘attacks’. Never mind the connection of the Saudi’s with the Bush dynasty. Never mind the mind, for thinking had been outlawed.

The fallout from 9/11 continues, but perhaps with time, truths will continue to surface bringing change & healing, AND there is always help from the ever present spiritual world, if we look for it. Michael will continue to pour his cosmic iron into our blood; it is up to us to use it to tame the dragon.

David T Nelson

“For once, therefore, a man woke up and saw that what mattered was not to proclaim democracy but to see the full reality, not to follow slogans, but to see things as they are. This would be particularly important today, for people would then realize that the events which reign with such blood and terror over the whole of humanity are guided and directed from just a few centers. People will never realize this if they persist in the delusion that nation is fighting nation, and allow the European and American Press to lull them to sleep over the kinds of relations that are said to exist between nations.” ~Rudolf Steiner, Fall of the Spirits of Darkness, : Lecture 14: Into the Future, Dornach, 28 October 1917

Dear Friends, This entire series of lectures: The Spiritual Background of the External World, given at the end of 1917 following 4 horrific years of WW1 – The war that begot every war since – gives Spiritually Scientific insights into the complex forces working behind the scenes. Revealing how most of humanity is asleep to the fact that fallen spirits, cast out of the spiritual worlds, have become intensely active on earth – working particularly in people’s thinking, & in their false perception of world events. It also gives a thru-line that says the defeat & fall of these spirits is ensured when we apply a science of the spirit which is available to us & needed now more than ever.

After 9/11: Photography, the Destructive Sublime, and the Postmodern Archive
  1. Insider Traders Knew About Attacks Before They Happened. Right before the 9/11 attacks, some fishy business happened within the stock market & insurance firms. An “extraordinary” amount of put options were placed on United Airlines & American Airlines stocks, the same airlines that were hijacked during the attacks. Many speculate that traders were tipped off about the attacks & profited from the tragedy. The Securities & Exchange Commission launched an insider trading investigation in which Osama bin Laden was a suspect, after receiving information from at least one Wall Street firm.
  2. The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) generals reported that they learned of the hijackings in time to scramble fighter jets, but that they were ordered to stand down ‘because it was a part of a Military war game’.
  3. Is this just like Pearl Harbor? Did our government want to use the attacks to justify an invasion on Iraq & Afghanistan to secure oil interests?
  4. Commercial airplanes’ frames are constructed with a very light aluminum material in order to make it easier to fly. Some believe that missiles or explosives were used to ensure the buildings collapsed. Many scientists & engineers say it looked like a controlled demolition. Many speculate that the towers were in fact blown down with explosives placed in selected locations. Some witnesses recounted hearing explosions inside the building as they attempted to escape. Many architects even maintain that a plane’s fuel cannot produce enough heat to melt the steel frames of the two buildings that collapsed.
  5. The Pentagon crash may be the most puzzling event of the day. Theorists maintain that the impact holes in the Pentagon were much smaller than a commercial American Airlines plane. They also question why the plane was not shot down prior to impact, as well as why the plane impacted a section of the Pentagon that was vacant due to renovations.
  6. According to official reports, the passengers onboard Flight 93 attempted to take back the plane from the hijackers & the subsequent struggle caused the aircraft to crash into an open field in Pennsylvania. As with the Pentagon attack, theorists state that very little plane wreckage was actually discovered in the field – that the crash site itself was too small for an airliner that size, arguing instead that the plane was shot down by the military & so it disintegrated over a larger area.
  7. In the aftermath of the attacks, passports & identification were found as evidence. How did the passports of the terrorists made out of paper survive the same explosion that destroyed buildings?
The Vision of Saint John, El Greco (Domenikos Theotokopoulos) (Greek, Iráklion (Candia) 1541–1614 Toledo), Oil on canvas
The vision of St. John ~el Greco

I know you are tired dear friend. It’s all so much. And I know today is an emotional day – But together we can continue to ask urgent & difficult questions, so that we may share healing, which often comes thru shattering insights. This can help us achieve humanity’s highest evolution.

Olga Fröbe-Kapteyn

We can’t rest until we reveal what lies at the root of the corona – our individual & collective Crown – vs. the ‘virus’, & the worldwide pandemic it has caused.  What are the deeper, spiritual realities? Which entities stand behind this world-wide-illness? What can we do to meet this? How can we be spiritually hygienic? What therapeutic practices can we employ?

~hag

Is this present world situation meant to be seen as part of a larger series of world-events? – Can we find the connections? All of humanity is being called upon to respond in a radically transformative way. How will we face the issues relating to government lockdowns, police corruption, & the rise of the protest movements that have sprung up in opposition to them. How do these events point to real questions of individual freedom – not a selfish ‘me 1st freedom’, but a true freedom based on love, good will & compassion toward everyone?

~hag

And above all, how does all this relate to the essential event of our time – The revealing of The Christ in the etheric; which remains largely hidden behind the veil of materialism?

Here are a few recordings around these important themes:

The Connection Between Epidemics, the Souls of the Dead, & the Spiritual World

“Connections Revealed”

The ‘Crowning’

~Standing in the light of Wisdom’s humble Peace & Love ~hag

9/11 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

1932 – Deathday of Fritz Lemmermayer – an Austrian writer, journalist, & close childhood friend of Rudolf Steiner in Vienna.

His father was a portrait painter, his mother a pianist. The shy boy had a particularly close relationship with her and his sister Marie. When Fritz was eight years old, his father died and his mother had to support four underage children under difficult circumstances, and Fritz had to help earn money from then on.

He studied philosophy, history and literature and discovered his love for poetry and soon wrote for a wide variety of journals. His large circle of friends also included the poets Robert Hamerling and Fercher von Steinwand Above all, however, Fritz was also an ardent admirer of Friedrich Hebbel and Richard Wagner , in whose house he visited regularly. His initial inclination towards Schopenhauer’s pessimistic philosophy soon gave way to an unshakable belief in the healing powers of the world Love . A passionate anti-materialist, he wanted to dedicate his life to creating and nurturing spiritual values.

In 1883, Fritz Lemmermayer completed his novel “The Alchemist”, his most important literary achievement, for which Hamerling also found very appreciative words. In 1884, his beloved sister Marie, who had been married to the musician Carl Udel, a confidante of Crown Prince Rudolf , died, which meant that Lemmermayer learned much of the Crown Prince’s life from close quarters. Lemmermayer’s mother also died in 1886 .

Rudolf Steiner met Lemmermayer in the same year 1886 in the circle of the poet Marie Eugenie delle Grazie . An extensive exchange of letters testifies to the close friendship that developed between the two. In “ My Journey ” Steiner reports: “He had just prepared his own meal: two soft eggs on a high-speed cooker; plus bread. He spoke with emphasis as the water surged to boil our eggs: “This will be delicious.” (Lit .: GA 028, p. 141f )

Lemmermayer and Steiner also joined the Vienna artists’ circle, which met weekly in the house of the Protestant pastor Alfred Formey (1844-1901) and his wife Marie on Dorotheergasse. Christine Hebbel , Friedrich Hebbel’s widow, also frequented here .

“It was also in 1888 when I was introduced to the house of the Viennese Protestant pastor Alfred Formey. Once a week a circle of artists and writers gathered there. Alfred Formey had appeared as a poet himself. Fritz Lemmermayer characterized him from the hearts of friends out like this: “Warm-hearted, intimate in his feeling for nature, enthusiastic, almost drunk in faith in God and happiness, this is how Alfred Formey writes his poems in soft, roaring chords. It is as if his step did not touch the hard earth, but as if he was going up in the clouds dozing and dreaming.” And that’s how Alfred Formey was as a person. You felt quite distant when you came to this rectory and at first there were only the master and the housewife there.” ( Lit .: GA 028, p. 157f)

In 1891, Lemmermayer became vice president of the Iduna Writers’ Association , named after Iduna , the Nordic goddess of youth and immortality , which had been founded as a counterweight against the currents of naturalism and in particular against the Young Vienna group led by Hermann Bahr .

After Steiner went to Weimar in the fall of 1890 to work on the publication of Goethe’s scientific writings for the large Weimar Goethe edition , Lemmermayer’s friendship with Martin Greif deepened. In 1893, Lemmermayer published his tragedy “Simson and Delilah,” which ends with the words: “Blessed is it to leave this world of madness and confusion.”

On September 24 , 1924, Lemmemayer was the victim of a dramatic incident. During a walk on the castle grounds in Brodzany, he was attacked by several dogs and was so badly injured from neck to feet that he had to stay in bed for six months. Fever, thrombosis and bilateral pneumonia brought him to the brink of death. It was only thanks to the self-sacrificing care of the then 23-year-old Heinz Robert von Wallpach that he was able to leave his sick bed for the first time at the end of March 1925 and soon afterwards moved to Vienna accompanied by his nurse.

In Vienna, Lemmermayer lived at Neubaugasse 29 until his death. He now got to know and appreciate Rudolf Steiner’s anthroposophy better and became a member of the Anthroposophical Society in 1926 . In 1927, Lemmermayer fell ill with a severe and rare form of measles and a new case of pneumonia. He now connected more and more with Steiner’s spiritual science and on many journeys through Austria, Germany, Switzerland, France, Holland and England he spoke in his subtle way about the time he spent with Steiner in Vienna and also cultivated the memory of Robert Hamerling and Fercher von Steinwand. This resulted in theIn 1929 he published memories of Rudolf Steiner, Robert Hamerling and some personalities of Austrian intellectual life in the 1980s . In addition, Lemmermayer also published some articles in the weekly magazine “ Das Goetheanum ”. ~Anthrowiki

Saturday 23 September 2023

Community Prep-Stir / Potluck / Bon-fire Celebrating

*Autumnal Equinox

*Yom Kippur

*Michaelmas Festival

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

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

RSVP Hazel@ReverseRitual.com

30 September 2023 – Our Annual Michaelmas Festival & Zinniker Farm Day

Biodynamic preparation making and Michaelmas 2023 – Food for Thought

The time for biodynamic preparation making is come up again very soon.
We will be making and burying the chamomile, yarrow and dandelion compost preparations. This offers hands on activity. We will be walking through grass and work in soil. Please dress accordingly and be ready to get dirty.

After the potluck join Hazel Archer-Ginsberg in an experiential activity at the bon-fire called: Food for Thought –

Bounty: What spiritual gifts have you harvested in your life so far this year?
Farewells: What no longer serves? What is over? Say good-bye and thank you.
Preserves: What will you keep as seed for the future?

Date: September 30th, 2023 at the Zinniker Farm
Time: 1:30pm, potluck dinner
Please bring a dish to share
Suggested donation: $15-25 for more info.

Bio~hag
Why ReverseRitual?
What is Anthroposophy?
Tip Jar
I Think Speech Podcast
YouTube

“How can I do the Good?”

Biography, Celestial Event, History, Remembering, Rudolf Steiner Quote

Greeting Friends – I am fresh from “The Mysteries of Healing: Realizing AnthropoSophia” Conference, put on by the AHA, spearheaded by Dr. Melissa Greer of Carah Medical Arts, a non-profit, Community-supported practice, working with Social 3-folding. In Gaelic Carah means “friend”. In Welsh it means “love” between friends and neighbors. In Indonesian it means “the way” and “wise”.

The Steiner verse spoken each day by Molly McIntyre set the soul mood:

“Wisdom in the Spirit
Love in the Soul
Power in the Will:
They guide me
They hold me
I trust them.
I offer myself to them”.

More than 80 dedicated Anthro doctors, therapists, various practitioners & inter-related souls, gathered on the sacred land of Camphill Soltane to ask “How can I do the Good?”.

The impulse to renew the ancient mysteries of healing brought by Ita Wegman to Rudolf Steiner 100 years ago, was alive & palpable.

August 1923 was a profound turning point for the ‘Movement’, which led to the new founding of the Society, with Rudolf Steiner uniting us to AnthropoSophia at the Christmas Conference.

During that potent time in Penmaenmawr = “Head of the Great Stone”, & Ilkley – there on the North coast of Wales, dotted with ancient Neolithic pre-Druidic ritual sites – & more than 250 large spirals, & a curved swastika carved into the rocky outcroppings, a break-thru occurred for Rudolf Steiner & Dr. Ita Wegman.

Connecting to the healing impulse radiating there brought further evidence of the ‘Northern stream‘, described often by Spiritual Science & in Germanic mythology – giving us glimpses into the Druidic, Trotten & Hibernian mystery school traditions.

The Druid Priests in particular were healers, working with the elemental realms to create remedies & medicines. This is captivatingly described by Steiner in THE EVOLUTION OF CONSCIOUSNESS, 26 August 1923, Penmaenmawr & in other lectures including: MAN IN THE PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE: “The actions of the sun on plants was revealed to the Druid Priest; he could see that a particular kind of plant-life flourishes at a particular time when the sun is active in a particular way. He could trace the spiritual activity of the sun and see how it pours and streams into flower, leaf and root; and it was the same with animals...We see it best of all in what the Druid priests possessed as a science of healing.”

Interesting to contemplate the connection between the veneration of the Druid Priests working with mistletoe, a parasitic plant that never touches the earth, intwining instead around a mighty oak tree – & the fact that Ita Wegman was one of the first to use Mistletoe (Viscum album) as a healing remedy for cancer.

Thinking of the Druids as a Priest – as well as a Healer, made me recall the Pastoral Medicine lectures – which Steiner gave just a few days after he had returned from Penmaenmawr…!

Are not the Priests Healers, & the Doctors Priests…?

Yes, I know – at that time Steiner saw the 2 streams as being separate. But more & more it seems we are being called to marry the streams. Perhpas when Ita Wegman asks her question, she is seeing a more integrated reality – a true renewal of the ancient mysteries. Dr. Ursula Flatters mentioned that according to her journals, Ita Wegman had been mulling over this question for 10 years.

During the various talks by Dr.’s Ursula Flatters, James Dyson, Marion Debus – many times their experience showed that to “do the Good” we have to let go of our ego-driven-human-will; this opens the space for the inspiration & intution of our Higher “I” – Anthroposophia, & the Holy Spirit to enter-in the work of healing.

More about that soon.

In ‘Mysterien- und Geisteschichte der Menschheit’, Gunther Wachsmuth reports what was experienced by Rudolf Steiner at the stone circle now known as the ‘Twelve Apostles’, on Ilkley Moor, constructed over 9000 years ago.

And in “The Life and Work of Rudolf Steiner.” Wachsmuth writes: “During his trips to England, In Penmaenmawr, Steiner visited a Druid circle: In keeping with the spiritual atmosphere of the place, the conversation centered on the Mysteries of the Druids and their opposite pole in Europe, the cult of Mithras, by which the Southern Mysteries were contrasted to the Northern Mysteries seen here. Before Steiner’s spiritual eye the ancient Druid culture came to life upon the spot. Indeed he himself seemed to change into a Druid priest, speaking with intimate knowledge and understanding as he began to explain the arrangement and the function of the stones, a unique and strange picture, as now in the loneliness of this lofty plateau Rudolf Steiner entered into the midst of the Druid circle. He told me to lift my gaze above the stones towards the mountain peaks surrounding the plateau, and described to me, with an intensity in his retrospect as if the event were occurring at that moment, how once the Druid priests, through viewing the signs of the zodiac passing along the horizon in the course of the year, were able to experience the spiritual cosmos, the beings within it, and their mandates to humanity.”

From Rudolf Steiner a month later in MICHAELMAS AND THE SOUL-FORCES OF MAN: “…In the immediate vicinity of Penmaenmawr were to be found two such sun-circles adjoining each other; and in this particular neighborhood, where even in the spiritual life of nature there is so much that has a different effect from that of nature elsewhere, what I have set forth in various anthroposophical lectures concerning the Druid Mysteries could be tested with the utmost clarity.

There is indeed a quite special spiritual atmosphere in this region where — on the island of Anglesea — the Society of King Arthur had a settlement…

…these sun-circles are arranged in the number twelve, like the twelve signs of the zodiac; and on the mountain we had climbed we found a large sun-circle and nearby a smaller one. If one had ascended, perhaps in a balloon, and looked down upon these two Druid circles, ignoring the insignificant distance between them, the same ground plan would have presented itself — there is something profoundly moving about this — as that of the Goetheanum in Dornach which was destroyed by fire.”

Steiner’s “Druidenstein painting“,“ which he gifted to Ita Wegman after their experiences in Penmaenmawr, depicts the shimmering etheric & astral overlay powerfully resonate there, shown in dramatic stages.

I’m sure there are others better able than myself to share a Spiritual Scientific artistic study of the color details & what the images all represent, so I’ll just emphasize that for me, this imagination describes the Druid Priests being able to perceive The Mystery of Golgotha – written on the Sun-drenched tapestry of the elemental world, & in the stellar script, at the Turning Point of Time.  A fulfillment of the teachings foreseen for thousands of years in the ancient Mystery Schools. The Cosmic Christ had taken human incarnation, & thru the medicine of his blood permeating the body of the Earth, a healing seed was set into all realms which they perceived.  

I picture The Druid Priests working deeply in a sort of ‘biodynamic’ way with the earth thru their healing practices, to prepare the way in the far distant future, for our Earth to become a New Sun…

These potent imaginations along with my impressions of the conference will continue to unfold in a series of essays that I will strive to assemble before I go off to the AAP training 1-8 August…

Until soon

~hag

25 July 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Look for Bella Luna as the 1st quarter Moon near the bright star Spica in Virgo the Maiden.

RUDOLF STEINER’S CALENDAR OF THE SOUL
translated (with added titles) by Roy Sadler
On Saturday the sun entered the sign of Leo,
whose Eurythmy gesture is Enthusiasm,
THE ENTHUSIASM OF THE YEAR
The Spirit’s Treasure
v16
My foresight is commanding me
to harbour inwardly the spirit’s gift
that God’s fruit ripen
in ground of soul
for Selfhood’s harvest.

In the mirror verse the sun enters the sign of Capricorn.
WINTER SOLSTICE – ADVENT IV
The Midnight Sun
v37
My heart anointed impulse strives
to bear the spirit light
into world-winter-night
that shining seeds of soul
take root in cosmic ground,
and in the senses’ dark
God’s all-transfiguring Word resound

Easter Monday

Community, Festival, Poetry, Remembering, Upcoming Events
Selena Wilson

~O trembling star in the bright brow of Easter-Tide
Am I just a grain of sand blowing East to West?
NO! The world is more than bright metal & dull plastic
On my lips live the promise of ripening wheat
& Prayers for Peace…
~hag

Sue Ellen Parkinson

Salutations Beloved sisters & brothers on this Easter Monday – 

I apologize for the tech difficulties around the Mary Magdalene zoom presentation we did on Holy Saturday – It’s a lot to try & do these hybrid events – to serve the community in the room & to connect & consecrate the ethers with all of you.

We did record the live event. Here is the link 

Thank you for your interest & kind understanding…

PS. If anyone wants to volunteer to help with hosting the tech for my future zoom events,  please contact me Hazel@ReverseRitual.com 🙂

Blessings as we move thru the Resurrection into the Mystery of the 40 days until Ascension.

~Hazel Archer-Ginsberg  

10 April 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Venus is passing the Pleiades tonight & tomorrow evening. How soon before the end of twilight can you first begin to see the little cluster?

“Where do the Dead come from? The Living. Where do the Living come from? The Dead.” ~ Plato

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

The Feast Day of St. Magdalene of Canossa. Born in northern Italy in 1774, Magdalen knew her mind—and spoke it. At age 15 she announced she wished to become a nun. After trying out her vocation with the cloistered Carmelites, she realized her desire was to serve the needy without restriction. For years she worked among the poor & sick, & with delinquent or abandoned girls. In her mid-twenties Magdalen began offering lodging to poor girls in her own home. In time she opened a school, which offered practical training & religious instruction. As other women joined her in the work, the new Congregation of the Daughters of Charity emerged. Over time, houses were opened throughout Italy. They focused on the educational & spiritual needs of women, which continues to this day.

Feast Day of Fulbert of Chartres, Bishop of Chartres from 1006 to 1028. A highly esteemed teacher – his pupils called him “venerable Socrates”. He was a strong opponent of the rationalistic tendencies which had infected some dialecticians of his time. Letters he wrote from 1004–1028 gave much insight into life in his day. He also wrote poetry & many sermons on the Blessed Virgin Mary. He was responsible for the advancement of the Nativity of the Virgin’s feast day on September 8. When, in about 1020, the cathedral of Chartres burned down, Fulbert at once began to rebuild it in greater splendor.

According to Rudolf Steiner’s Calendar of the Soul, this is the Birth Day of the prophets Daniel & Ezekiel. As well as the day Wagner received the inspiration for Parsifal in Zurich, 1857.

Daniel – Hebrew “God is my Judge” hero of the Book of Daniel who interprets dreams & receives apocalyptic visions. Daniel & his friends Hananiah, Mishael, & Azariah were among the young Jewish nobility carried off to Babylon following the capture of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. The four are chosen for their intellect & beauty to be trained in the Babylonian court, & are given new names. Daniel is given the Babylonian name Belteshazzar, while his companions are given the Babylonian names Shadrach, Meshach, & Abednego. Daniel & his friends refuse the food & wine provided by the king of Babylon to avoid becoming defiled. They receive wisdom from God & surpass “all the magicians & enchanters of the kingdom.” Nebuchadnezzar dreams of a giant statue made of four metals with feet of mingled iron & clay, smashed by a stone from heaven. Only Daniel is able to interpret it: the dream signifies four kingdoms, of which Babylon is the first, but God will destroy them & replace them with his own kingdom. Nebuchadnezzar dreams of a great tree that shelters all the world & of a heavenly figure who decrees that the tree will be destroyed; again, only Daniel can interpret the dream, which concerns the sovereignty of God over the kings of the earth.

When Nebuchadnezzar’s son King Belshazzar uses the vessels from the Jewish temple for his feast, a hand appears & writes a mysterious message on the wall, which only Daniel can interpret; it tells the king that his kingdom will be given to the Medes & Persians, because Belshazzar, unlike Nebuchadnezzar, has not acknowledged the sovereignty of the God of Daniel. They overthrow Nebuchadnezzar & the new king, Darius the Mede, appoints Daniel to high authority. Jealous rivals attempt to destroy Daniel with an accusation that he worships God instead of the king, & Daniel is thrown into a den of lions, but an angel saves him, his accusers are destroyed, & Daniel is restored to his position.

In the third year of Darius, Daniel has a series of visions. In the first, four beasts come out of the sea, the last with ten horns, & an eleventh horn grows & achieves dominion over the Earth & the “Ancient of Days” (God) gives dominion to “one like a son of man”. An angel interprets the vision.

In the second, a ram with two horns is attacked by a goat with one horn; the one horn breaks & is replaced by four. A little horn arises & attacks the people of God & the temple, & Daniel is informed how long the little horn’s dominion will endure.

In the third, Daniel is troubled to read in holy scripture (the book is not named but appears to be Jeremiah) that Jerusalem would be desolate for 70 years. Daniel repents on behalf of the Jews & requests that Jerusalem & its people be restored. An angel refers to a period of 70 sevens (or weeks) of years.

In the final vision, Daniel sees a period of history culminating in a struggle between the “king of the north” & the “king of the south” in which God’s people suffer terribly; an angel explains that in the end the righteous will be vindicated & God’s kingdom will be established on Earth.

The Prophet Ezekiel describes his calling to be a prophet by going into great detail about his encounter with God & 4 living creatures or Cherubim with four wheels that stayed beside the creatures. For the next five years he incessantly prophesied & acted out the destruction of Jerusalem & its temple, which was met with opposition.

According to the midrash Canticles Rabbah, Shadrach, Meshach, & Abednego asked for his advice as to whether they should resist Nebuchadnezzar’s command & choose death by fire rather than worship his idol. At first God revealed to the prophet that they could not hope for a miraculous rescue; whereupon the prophet was greatly grieved, since these 3 men constituted the “remnant of Judah”. But after they had left the house of the prophet, fully determined to sacrifice their lives to God, Ezekiel received this revelation: “Thou dost believe indeed that I will abandon them. That shall not happen; but do thou let them carry out their intention according to their pious dictates, & tell them nothing”

Ezekiel’s statement about the “closed gate” (Ezekiel 44:2–3) is understood  as another prophecy of the coming Incarnation of Christ : the “gate” signifying the Virgin Mary & the “prince” referring to Jesus. This is one of the readings at Vespers on Great Feasts of the Theotokos in the Eastern Orthodox & Byzantine Catholic Churches. “No one can enter Heaven unless by Mary, as though through a door.” The imagery provides the basis for the concept that God gave Mary to mankind as the “Gate of Heaven” (thence the dedication of churches & convents to the Porta Coeli), an idea also laid out in the Salve Regina (Hail Holy Queen) prayer.

837 – Halley’s Comet makes its closest approach to Earth

PRESENTS:

The Mystery of Ascension with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

This course is available on Zoom. You will be emailed a Zoom link closer to the time of the class. The course will be recorded and you will receive a link to watch it. Go to the Infinity Foundation web site to enroll

Course Number 231154 / Zoom
Date: Thursday, May 11
Time 7:00 – 8:30 PM CST
Cost $33/23 payment 10 days in advance

Gerald Shepherd

When we tune into the Cycle of the Seasons, we experience that as the Earth breathes out in the Springtime, the beings of nature reach upwards towards the heights. The longing of the human soul also strives to meet this mood of ascension, which attunes all life to the cosmic expanses.

Together we will gain insights in how to rise up to our Higher Self by participating in this harmonizing spring-dialogue between the worlds.

This reconnection between heaven & earth was prefigured in the story of Jacob’s ladder from the Old Testament. Through his dream of the ‘stairway to heaven’, Jacob gave us a prophecy in the picture of a golden ladder on which choirs of Angels traverse between the ‘Above & Below’. The Mystery of the Ascension of Christ, 40 days after the Resurrection at Easter, fulfilled Jacob’s Prophecy. Christ as the Being of Love became the living bridge connecting us to the eternal.

Through this workshop we will learn how humanity will also be transfigured in the fullness of time. The company of the Angelic Hierarchies wait for us, their younger siblings, to ascend, first of all in our thinking, to meet them in fellowship, as they work all the while by our sides.

Nancy Poer

~Vitae Sophia~A Whitsun Festival of United Soul Endeavor  with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg, Velsum Voices & Eurythmy

Saturday 27 May 2023 on zoom

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

Find a collection of the many RECORDINGS of Presentations, Programs & Festivals HERE