Category Archives: Remembering

Koberwitz

Agriculture Course: Lecture 6
Rudolf Steiner

7 June 1924 – Beginning of the “Agricultural Course” on the Koberwitz estate of Count & Countess Keyserlingk – Founding of bio-dynamic agriculture by Rudolf Steiner.

By the time Rudolf Steiner was cajoled into presenting the Agriculture Course, he was well experienced in planting an ‘impulse’- the seeds of an idea, & witnessing the ensuing manifestation. Steiner’s Agriculture Course comprised just 8 lectures presented over a 10 day period in the Whitsun-tide of 1924, 7 to 16 June, at the small village of Koberwitz, Silesia (now Kobierzyce, Poland).

Forschungsstelle Kulturimpuls - Biographien Dokumentation

Count Carl Keyserlingk was an anthroposophist, & the estate manager of 18,500 acres at Koberwitz. He managed 18 farms, with more than 1000 workers. So Keyserlingk was keen for Steiner to present a course for farmers. There was some disquiet among the farmers because of the rapid change in agricultural practices in the wake of the supply of cheap synthetic nitrogenous fertilizer flowing from the adoption of the Haber-Bosch process for the ‘fixing’ of gaseous nitrogen which was first demonstrated in 1909 & which was then rapidly industrialized on a grand scale for explosives, & after WWI, for fertilizer.

Ehrenfried Pfeiffer - Alchetron, The Free Social Encyclopedia

Ehrenfried Pfeiffer’s account relates that: “Count Keyserlingk set to work in dead earnest to persuade Dr. Steiner to give an agricultural course. As Dr. Steiner was already overwhelmed with work, tours & lectures, he put off his decision from week to week. The undaunted Count then dispatched his nephew to Dornach, with orders to camp on Dr. Seiner’s doorstep & refuse to leave without a definite commitment for the course. This was finally given.”

Keyserlingk was the driving force behind the agriculture course. He was described by Elisabeth Vreede, who was at the course, as “one to whom farming itself was a priestly office” According to the Astrosopher: “Count Keyserlingk had realised the dire need for a complete revival of cultural methods”.

Agriculture Course: The Birth of the Biodynamic Method (CW 327 ...

Steiner described his Agriculture Course as: “A course of lectures containing what there is to be said about agriculture from an anthroposophical point of view.” Steiner stated that “the contents of these lectures were to serve, in the first place, as working material for the Association of farmers which had just been founded in the Anthroposophical Society”. Steiner stressed the importance of practical demonstrations: “As to the farmers – well, if they hear of these things from a fellow-farmer, they will say, “What a pity he has suddenly gone crazy!” … But eventually when he sees a really good result, he will not feel a very easy conscience in rejecting it outright”. He empowered the Agricultural Experimental Circle (AEC): “enhance it and develop it by actual experiments and tests. The farmers’ society – the “Experimental Circle” that has been formed – will fix the point of time when in its judgment the tests and experiments are far enough advanced to allow these things to be published”. He stressed the importance of confidentiality: “No kind of communication was to be made about the contents of the Course until such time as the members of the Association felt impelled to speak out of the results of their own experimental work”. It was critical that a project development plan was set in place at Koberwitz for two reasons, firstly, because the Agriculture Course was never repeated &, secondly, although up to this point Steiner had engaged in a comprehensive schedule of travelling & lecturing, he was seriously unwell, & his public life & life itself were drawing to a close. The continuing vitality of Steiner’s agricultural ‘impulse’ was dependent on Steiner successfully passing the baton to others. The AEC began with 60 members of the Koberwitz Course (out of the course’s total enrollment of 111), with Ernst Stegemann & Carl Keyserlingk appointed by Steiner as chairmen.

By 1929, the Natural Science Section of the Goetheanum reported the positive news that the work of translating Steiner’s ‘hints’ was by then a global enterprise: “Dr. Steiner’s new methods for Agriculture have been investigated and applied on a practical and on an experimental basis.

Rudolf Steiner's Koberwitz (Kobierzyce, Poland) - Birthplace of Biody…

Steiner was prophetic in much of what he taught. He presented the farm as “a living organism”. He spoke against a purely chemical view & a chemical reductionist view, & he insisted on the criticality of provenance. Long before the costs of nitrogen pollution were monetized, Steiner, with great vision, put it in a nutshell: “There is a big difference between nitrogen and nitrogen. He spoke of “the degradation of the products of agriculture” & observed that: “Nowadays people simply think that a certain amount of nitrogen is needed for plant growth, and they imagine it makes no difference how it’s prepared or where it comes from. Where it comes from, however, is not a matter of indifference.” Steiner urged the adoption of a holistic view, & he stated that “we’ve lost the knowledge of what it takes to continue to care for the natural world.” He urged his listeners to take “the macrocosmic approach”& to “see individual plants as parts of a single whole.” He was critical of the approach where living things are “neatly pigeonholed into separate species & genera”, adding: “But that is not how things are in nature. In nature, and actually throughout the universe, everything is in mutual interaction with everything else.”

Agriculture: A Course of Eight Lectures by Rudolf Steiner

The most important thing is to make the benefits of our agricultural preparations available to the largest possible areas over the entire earth, so that the earth may be healed and the nutritive quality of its produce improved in every respect. That should be our first objective.” ~Rudolf Steiner

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Agriculture Course: Lecture 2

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

1692 – Port Royal, Jamaica, is hit by a catastrophic earthquake; in just three minutes, 1,600 people are killed & 3,000 are seriously injured

1775 – The United Colonies changes their name to the United States

1776 – Richard Henry Lee of Virginia proposed to the Continental Congress a resolution calling for a Declaration of Independence

1843 – Deathday of Friedrich Holderlin, a major German lyric poet, commonly associated with the artistic movement known as Romanticism. Hölderlin was also an important thinker in the development of German Idealism, particularly his early association with & philosophical influence on Georg Wilhelm, Friedrich Hegel, Friedrich Wilhelm, & Joseph Schelling. Rudolf Steiner said he was a pupil of Plato in Karmic Relationships Vol. 1 lec. 12

1862 – The United States and the United Kingdom agree in the Lyons–Seward Treaty to suppress the African slave trade

Planck Karl Christian - Detailseite - LEO-BW

1880 – Deathday of Karl Christian Planck who developed a completely original system of philosophy, based on the realistic view that thought should proceed from nature to the highest forms of existence in the spiritual life. His views were directly antagonistic to the Darwinian theory of descent

1914 – 1st ship passes thru the Panama Canal

The Birth of a New Agriculture: Koberwitz 1924 and the ...

1924 – Beginning of the “Agricultural Course” on the Koberwitz estate of Count & Countes Keyserlingk. Founding of bio-dynamic agriculture by Rudolf Steiner.

1980 – Deathday of Henry Miller, American novelist & essayist

1991 – Mount Pinatubo erupts, generating an ash column 4.3 miles high

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sacred geometry | The Grand Tangent

Dear friends I will be off-line until Thursday 11 June

~whispering the hexagram in the sacred grove…

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Friday 19 June 2020 – Front Range Anthroposophical Café presents:

Cosmic Rapture Grounded in Jubilant Hearts – From Summer Solstice to St. John’s-Tide –with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg 

To pass the test of Summer we will explore many questions:

  • What is the Spiritual Significance of a Solar Eclipse on Summer Solstice?
  • How do we stand wakefully within the sublime mysteries of the Summer-Tide, to consciously embody ‘the spiritual wisdom of the gods’?
  • Who is the mysterious Archangel of Summer?
  • What is the secret to healing the ‘soul-fever’ so prevalent in society today?

Together we will work to strengthen our true “I”, enlivening our will forces.

We look forward to seeing you on Friday 19 June 2020 shortly before 6 pm (Pacific), 7 PM (Mountain) 8 pm (Central), 9 pm (Eastern).

Here is the link to our Anthroposophical Café and all you need to do to join us is click on it: https://zoom.us/j/294724669.

Warmly, Karen vann Vuuren, Tom Altgelt, Jamie York, and our growing circle of Café Friends – It’s better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.

Universal “I AM”

The Tuesday (Mars day) of PentecostThe festival of the Word, a new Language of the Sophia-Logos, holding the ideal of Free Speech!  Our day star Sun is speaking thru the  stars of the Bull at this time, that region of the Zodiac connected to the human Larynx, giving us the capacity for self-expression.

The current World events must be given voice. Pentecost is the festival of NOW, highlighting the challenging relationships of self & community. –  Offering us an opportunity to transcend race. How do we work as individuals to transform our ingrained sympathies & antipathies? How do we purify our astral nature in order to make ourselves into a vessel worthy to receive the Holy Spirit, giving us the possibility of manifesting the ‘Spirit Self’, the True Self which will provide the capacity to create new social forms..?

Thinking of Pentecost as being 50 days after Easter, & in looking at the # 5, we see the 4 bodies of the human being: physical, etheric, astral & “I” – given a 5th dimension – a new spiritual aspect is added: The Spirit-Self, the Higher Ego.

Aggripa

The pentagram is the symbol of the true human being, (the inverted pentagram is a symbol of black magic – that which seeks to destroy this higher human being).   The numbers 4 & 5 raised to the 10th power, indicate a process taking place at a higher spiritual level, which is how the events described in 40 days = Ascension & 50 days = Pentecost,  are meant to be understood, both as historical events of Christ’s union with the earth, but also as initiatory events taking place on a higher plane for humanity.

Rudolf Steiner defines the 10 days between Ascension & Pentecost as a time of deep sadness, grief & loss for the apostles. He describes it as ‘a sorrow such as cannot be compared with any other sorrow on earth’ –A kind of death experience on a spiritual level. And just like in the old mystery traditions, after the time of catharsis & preparation, there is a mystical death; so here too there is a kind of loss & experience of death. The #10 is the number of completion.

It Hides Behind Her Tips Painting by Pablo Damas
Bea Trumbel

Steiner points out: All real knowledge, all knowledge that can truly be called great is born from pain, from inner travail…And out of this pain, out of this infinite sorrow, there sprang what we call the Mystery of Pentecost…Having lost sight of the Christ in external clairvoyant vision (the 40 days with the Resurrected Christ), the disciples found it again in their inmost being…found it through sorrow, through pain.  (May 17, 1923, Christiana)

Donna Vector

Here we have a great reversal. In ancient times the human being experienced the True Self, the Higher I AM, in the cosmos outside of them, in the Sun sphere, thru initiation, by leaving the body. 

Ninetta Sombart

Even in with Lazarus, the first Christian initiation performed on Earth, in public, by the Christ, Lazarus was “called forth” by Christ as the hierophant from without.

Pentecost inaugurates a new age, when human beings thru a personal path of self-guided catharsis comes to an awakening of the Higher I AM in “their inmost being” as a force of transformative power, which is the force of love.

Opinion | The Uncommon Power of Grace - The New York Times

The Greek word for grace is, “charis”, which means the free love from God.  In ancient Greek, there are several words for love:  eros – romantic love; philia – brotherly/family love; agape – divine love, or love of the human for the divine. 

Grace and the human person (IV)
Johannes Demmer

One other word for love is charis.  Charis is higher than agape, because it is the love of the Divine for the human being. This is the highest form of love.

The Gospel of St. John - Dr. Rudolf Steiner Bookstore and ...

In the 12th of Steiner’s lectures on the ‘Gospel of John’, which he describes as the most spiritual perspective given by the writers of the gospels, he speaks of how John never uses the name Mary, but always says: “the mother of Jesus”.  He equates this with the ‘Virgin Sophia’ – the purified astral body.  It is this Virgin Sophia = the Mother of Jesus, who is “in their midst” at Pentecost. 

The story goes on to say that they were all together in one place, using the word which is often translated as house, but in Greek it means “a shared, common place”, a community place.   Into this community place, with the Virgin Sophia in their midst, came the Holy Spirit, the Universal Ego, the true I AM, which can then speak out of this purified astral body. 

This Holy Spirit came with a rushing of wind & flames that individualized onto each of the disciples, & “stayed upon each of them”(this is the same term used at the Baptism of Jesus) They then began to speak a new language “as the

Holy Spirit gave them utterance.”  This was a speaking, which transcended earthly languages, for everyone understood & were amazed.

In this same lecture from the Gospel of John cycle, Steiner addresses this question: a person thus illuminated, who has received the Holy Spirit into himself, speaks in a different manner.  How does he speak? …he is not expressing ‘his’ own opinion. His views do not come into consideration.  His personal (earthly) ego has been eclipsed which means that…it has become impersonal and it is the Cosmic Universal Ego’.

He continues this Pentecostal theme in a lecture on Whitsunday, 1910: ‘This Holy Spirit enables us to become free human souls.  As the Spirit of Freedom, it streamed out through the first disciples…in the first Pentecostal festival….We can become free only when we find ourselves again in spirit and out of the spirit become master over the spirit within ourselves. Our true spirit is the universal human spirit, which we recognize as the Pentecostal power of the Holy Spirit.. which we must bring to birth in ourselves and allow to become manifest…This will bring to life in our souls something which overleaps all boundaries separating the different parts of humanity’.

Leszek Forczek

This brings us back to the great call of our current time of Pentecost – which is the great social question of our time: the individual in relation to the whole, the community. 

Today we face immense questions about the future of humanity, with division, polarization, lack of understanding & failed communication, creating the social problems of our time. 

Only by a social & personal catharsis which can allow for the true spirit of freedom, the true I AM, to eclipse our small personal egotism & the lower impulses of our nature, can a new community & new language of universal sister/brotherhood be created. 

Bloom: One Hundred Years: In Recognition of Rudolf Steiner's ...

Only out of the spiritual recognition of the universal Human Being, will the ideas & applications of a new approach to fraternity in economics; equality in human rights; & freedom in the cultural/spiritual life, be accomplished. 

May we strive to serve this goal out of the spirit of The Sophia.

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Cassiopeia at its lowest

2 June 2020 – “Speaking with the Stars”: At inferior conjunction, Venus moves between Earth & Sun. This facilitates Venus in becoming the morning star, after her hidden journey into the Solar Logos.

Venus at inferior conjunction, June 3, 2020
2020, June 3: Venus passes between Earth and Sun – inferior conjunction – and begins to move into the morning sky when it rises before sunrise.

When we see the Sun in the south, our clocks read noon. The opposite direction is midnight. We do not see the sun in the sky at midnight, & Venus too will be hidden.

The line then divides the morning sky from the evening sky. Venus is moving toward the morning as she revolves around the Sun faster than Earth.

Venus Inferior Conjunction | Gray Crawford

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Venus Cycles | Geometry, Sacred geometry, Astronomy

“The Master said, “A true teacher is one who, keeping the past alive, is also able to understand the present.” (Analects 2.11)” ~Confucius

455 – Sack of Rome

1098 – First Crusade: The first Siege of Antioch ends as Crusader forces take the city; the second siege began five days later.

Pin on SALEM WITCH TRIALS

1692 – Bridget Bishop is the first person to go to trial in the Salem witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts; she was found guilty and later hanged

1882 – Deathday of Giuseppe Garibaldi, Italian general & politician. Spoken of as a high initiate in the Hibernian Mysteries in ‘Karmic Relationships’ Vol 1, lec. 11 by Rudolf Steiner (June 2nd is also Festa della Repubblica -The Italian National Republic Day)

Rudolf Steiner's Biography – Giorgio Tarditi Spagnoli

1922 – Start of the West-East Congress in Vienna, opened by Ludwig Polzer-Hoditz. At this conference Rudolf Steiner gave his last lecture on Threefolding (1917 – 1922)

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The Holy Spirit Within Painting by Sister Rebecca Shinas
Kerby Dalton

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~i am a form in the flame
seen only if one gazes long into the fire…
clouds of smoke tear like a shroud & i see the shine of other hidden ones,
faces aglow with heat
flashing like lightning, speaking with thunder…
rising in the smoke
the scent of my prayer
an incense of hope & wonder…
~hag

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MANIFESTATIONS OF KARMA: June 3rd, 2020 Zoom Meeting with the Central Regional Council 7:15 pm – 8:30 pm CDT
He who observes human life carefully — not simply in a superficial way — may find remarkable connections in it. Unfortunately, the phenomena of human life are at present observed for only short periods of time, hardly even for a few years; people are not accustomed to connect what has happened after a long period of time, with what may have happened previously as the cause. There are very few at the present day who study the beginning and the end of a man’s life in their relationship to each other; nevertheless this relationship is extraordinarily instructive.” ~Rudolf Steiner, Manifestations of Karma

Chapter 1, “The Nature and Significance of Karma in the Personal and Individual, and in Humanity, the Earth and the Universe, Hamburg, 16 May, 1910 … focus of the June 3 meeting.

https://wn.rsarchive.org/…/GA120/E…/RSP1984/19100516p01.htmlAudio Conference Details: Join Zoom Meetinghttps://us02web.zoom.us/j/81116556762

Meeting ID: 811 1655 6762
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Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kclU2SSTFIf you have questions, please contact Alberto Loya aloyavaca@peoplepc.com Agenda for our Study Call 

7:15 Welcome and Introductions
7:18 Verse
7:25 Study led by five volunteers
Note: CRC team will ID volunteers
Marianne – first section
Travis – second section
Lisa – third section
Alberto – fourth section
Hazel – fifth section
8:05 Conversation
8:28 Close with verse

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Friday 19 June 2020 – Front Range Anthroposophical Café presents:

The New Mysteries of St. Johns-Tide with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg 

To pass the test of Summer we will explore many questions:

  • How do we stand wakefully within the sublime mysteries of the Summer-Tide, to consciously embody ‘the spiritual wisdom of the gods’?
  • Who is the mysterious Archangel of Summer?
  • Who is John the Baptist? What do his sayings “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” And “He must increase, but I must decrease.” really mean?
  • What is the secret to healing the ‘soul-fever’ so prevalent in society today?
  • What is the mystery of the Dragon-fly, & other elemental beings?
  • How can we understand the ‘Cycle of the Year as Breathing Process of the Earth’?

Together we will work to strengthen our true “I”, enlivening our will forces.

We look forward to seeing you on Friday 19 June 2020 shortly before 7 PM (Mountain time.) Here is the link to our Anthroposophical Café and all you need to do to join us is click on it: https://zoom.us/j/294724669.

Warmly, Karen vann Vuuren, Tom Altgelt, Jamie York, and our growing circle of Café Friends – It’s better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.

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Beholding Natura

Plate IV
Black Board drawing by Rudolf Steiner

Dear Friends – In the “Four Seasons and the Archangels,” Dr. Steiner describes the out breath of the Earth in Spring – how the activity of the Ahrimanic beings, whose desire to enslave lives in the limestone, & is strongest, especially in March. Most of the time, the Ahrimanic beings gain very little from the earth, instead they must rely on the human being for their astral sustenance. Yet, in the Springtime, these beings, due to the attraction of the vitality of the limestone, seek to draw down an “astral rain from the cosmos, blowing around the world an astral wind, with the hope of ensouling the earth’s limestone, into a world of pain.”

Plate III
Black Board drawing by Rudolf Steiner

The Luciferic beings also strive in the Spring thru the carbonic acid, carrying phosphoric, sulfuric, volatile substances, rising up higher out of the earth thru the breathing of the plants. They desire to kick the non-breathing etheric substance of human beings. Together, this would create the possibility of a rising etheric mist that would suffocate human breathing, but would grant Luciferic beings the etheric bodies they do not have. The volatilizing sulfur process, bound to the oxygenation of cells in the body, would be lifted away in a suffocating outbreath of the carbon dioxide, vegetative process. “That is what the Luciferic spirits strive and hope for, when the end of March comes on. They hope to change the whole Earth into a delicate shell of this kind, wherein they, densified through the etheric nature of man, could carry on their own existence.”

Of the Ahrimanic beings, Steiner says that if they could realize their hopes, “the whole of humanity would gradually be dissolved into the Earth:” into a matrix of Ahrimanic singularity. “The transition to this enslavement with the Earth would consist in this: man in his whole organism would become more and more like the limestone. He would blend the limestone with his organism and become more and more calcified. In this way he would transmute his bodily form into one that looked quite different – a sclerotic form with something like bat’s wings. This form would then be able to merge gradually into the earthly element, so that the whole Earth, according to the Ahrimanic idea, would become a dead Earth being.”

We are living in an age where the Ahrimanic threat stands before us, striving to make our soul capacities of thinking, feeling & willing depend entirely on the genetically modified food we digest (rather than on cosmic nutrition). “For Ahriman hardens man, while Lucifer wishes to dissolve and evaporate him through his breathing. In all this, the forces that make for illness reside.”

Free Angel Reading with the The Archangel Raphael

The healing medicine of the Spring Archangel Raphael is vitally needed, & available to all right now. We can rise in our thinking to meet this energy, which helps us resist fixed, artificial, poisonous systems, especially those that distance us from our human community, that prevent us from overcoming the illness of our time, severing human evolution from the Earth evolution.

Diagram 2
Black Board drawing by Rudolf Steiner

Together with the mighty being Michael, spiritual emissaries empower us with true nourishment, & Mother Nature’s artistic, living learning, that, thru our beholding of ‘Natura’, unveils the healing, cosmic spirit.

Ok so, friends, go out & get some sunshine! Take a deep breath, put your feet on the earth & use your thinking to engender gratitude for all the helpful elemental beings aligned with love & light waiting to be redeemed thru our loving attention, thru our willing devotion. xox

Mercury loops.jpg

2 May 2020 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Here is a must read article from Astrosopher Jonathan Hilton of the Astrosophy Center

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Goddess as The Caduceus | Sculpture, Angel statues, Mythology

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

1519 – Death Day of Leonardo da Vinci, Italian painter, sculptor, & architect.

“…We know how Leonardo worked at the “Last Supper”. He often went and sat on the scaffolding and brooded for hours in front of the wall, then he would take a brush and make a few strokes and go away again. Sometimes he only went and stared at the picture and went away again. When he was painting the Christ Figure, his hand trembled. Indeed, if we put together all that we can find concerning this subject we must say that neither outwardly nor inwardly was Leonardo happy when painting this world-renowned picture. Now there were people at that time in Milan who were displeased with the slow progress of the picture, for instance a Prior of the monastery, who could not see why an artist could not paint such a picture quickly, and complained to the Duke. He too thought the affair had lasted too long. Leonardo answered: “The picture is to represent Jesus Christ and Judas, the two greatest contrasts; one cannot paint them in one year; there are no models for them in the world, neither for Judas nor for Christ”. After he had been working at the picture for years, he said he did not know whether he could finish it after all! Then he said that if finally he found no model for Judas he could always use the Prior himself! It was thus extraordinarily difficult to bring the picture to a conclusion but within himself Leonardo did not feel happy. For this picture showed the contrast between what lived in his soul and what he was able to represent on the canvas. Here it is necessary to bring forward a hypothesis of Spiritual Science, which may be reached by anyone who studies what can by degrees be learned about this picture.” ~Rudolf Steiner, Leonardo da Vinci, His Spiritual and Intellectual Greatness, At the Turning Point of the New Age

1611 – The King James Version of the Bible is published for the first time in London, England, by printer Robert Barker

1729 – Birthday of Catherine the Great of Russia, the longest-ruling female leader of Russia. The Catherinian Era, is often considered the Golden Age of the Russian Empire & the Russian nobility. She enthusiastically supported the ideals of The Enlightenment, thus earning the status of an enlightened despot. As a patron of the arts she presided over the age of the Russian Enlightenment, a period when the Smolny Institute, the first state-financed higher education institution for women in Europe, was established.

1772 – Birthday of Novalis, the pseudonym & pen name of Georg Philipp Friedrich Freiherr von Hardenberg, poet, author, mystic, & philosopher of Early German Romanticism. His study of mineralogy & management of salt mines in Saxony, was often ignored by his contemporary readers Novalis concerned himself with the scientific doctrine of Johann Gottlieb Fichte, which greatly influenced his world view, transforming Fichte’s Nicht-Ich (German “not I”) to a Du (“you”), an equal subject to the Ich (“I”). This was the starting point for Novalis’ Liebesreligion (“religion of love”) dedicated to his beloved Sophie who died of tuberculosis.

“…When we consider the life of Novalis, what an echo we find there of the Raphael life for which Hermann Grimm had so fine an understanding! His beloved dies in her youth. He is himself still young. What is he going to do with his life now that she has died? He tells us himself. He says that his life on Earth will be henceforth to “die after her”, to follow her on the way of death. He wants to pass over already now into the super-sensible, to lead again the Raphael life, not touching the Earth, but living out in poetry his magic idealism. He would fain not let himself be touched by Earth life.

When we read the “Fragments” of Novalis, and give ourselves up to the life that flows so abundantly in them, we can discover the secret of the deep impression they make on us. Whatever we have before us in immediate sense-reality, whatever the eye can see and recognise as beautiful — all this, through the magic idealism that lives in the soul of Novalis, appears in his poetry with a well-nigh heavenly splendour. The meanest and simplest material thing — with the magic idealism of his poetry he can make it live again in all its spiritual light and glory.

And so we see in Novalis a radiant and splendid forerunner of that Michael stream which is now to lead you all, my dear friends, while you live; and then, after you have gone through the gate of death, you will find in the spiritual super-sensible worlds all those others — among them also the being of whom I have been speaking to you today — all those with whom you are to prepare the work that shall be accomplished at the end of the century, and that shall lead mankind past the great crisis in which it is involved.” ~Rudolf Steiner, The Individuality of Elias, John, Raphael, Novalis – The Last Address – Dornach, Michaelmas Eve, 1924

1933 – Gleichschaltung: Adolf Hitler bans trade unions

1945 –Fall of Berlin: The Soviet Union announces the capture of Berlin & Soviet soldiers hoist their red flag over the Reichstag building

1952 – The world’s first ever jet airliner, the De Havilland Comet 1 makes its maiden flight, from London to Johannesburg

1972 – In the early morning hours a fire breaks out at the Sunshine Mine located between Kellogg and Wallace, Idaho, killing 91 workers.

1986 –The City of Chernobyl is evacuated six days after the disaster

1998 – The European Central Bank is founded in Brussels in order to define & execute the European Union’s monetary policy

2000 – President Bill Clinton announces that accurate GPS access would no longer be restricted to the United States military

2008 – Cyclone Nargis makes landfall in Burma killing over 138,000 people & leaving millions of people homeless

2008 – Chaitén Volcano begins erupting in Chile, forcing the evacuation of more than 4,500 people.

2011 – Osama bin Laden, is killed by the United States special forces

2014 – Two mudslides in Badakhshan, Afghanistan, leave over 2,500 people dead

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POD (Poem Of the Day)

GUARDIAN OF THE PORTAL TO OTHER DIMENSIONS ~ 3 by DAGAIZM on ...

~The portals of perception
Raw & cluttered await
The revealing –
It is my Self I see –
A 1000 colors swirling in liquid light
A star covered in rising clouds
Hung by a thread from its ocean Moon
Hail Self
Traversing eternity
In moral steps of time
Where the Guardian beckons
~hag

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Like an evening vapor after the sunset
An On-line Ascension Festival with the Central Regional Council
May 21, 2020, 7pm – 8:15pm CDT (8pm – 9:15pm EDT)

Ascension Thursday – May 21, 2020
7pm – 8:15pm CDT
(8pm – 9:15pm EDT)

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

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

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

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

FREE – ALL are Welcome – find below Zoom Call details.
The Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society in America invites you to join our on-line Ascension Festival
This will be a “Zoom” 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://us02web.zoom.us/j/86998748216?pwd=K3JYa1ZLWis3dzEweFYvQ1VFZVVRdz09
The PASSWORD is:  Ascension

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

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

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

May Hope Spring Eternal –

The CRC – Marianne Fieber, Alberto Loya, Hazel Archer-Ginsberg, David Howerton, Lisa Dalton
EurythmystRaven GarlandIn heavy clouds let Him ascend

And so also let Him downward tread.
In cooling streams let Him be sent,
in flames of fire blaze His descent,
In air and essence, sound and dew,
To permeate our whole earth through.
~Novalis, born on May 2nd, 1772 — Happy birthday to him!

God Dog

26 April 2020 – Deathday of Stephan Sassafras Snow – our beloved family dog for 15 years. He would have been 16 (or 17?) in August.

My husband Chuck is a dog guy. I had a toy collie growing up, but never one as an adult. I couldn’t imagine training or taking care of a dog, but I woke up one day with the idea that we should have a dog about the house. Our girl was 7 at the time & very sensitive, so no overly active, jumpy, loud barky dogs for us. We went to a few shelters; we even found one we liked, but it didn’t happen. So I thought ok, well it is not meant to be. We already had 2 white cats, Milky & Kefir who we loved from the shelter. Milky let the girl terrorize her, & Kefir was like my pup following me around everywhere.

SnowyMilou.png
Milky Snow Buttercup & Kefir Acidophilus

Months went by & then a friend of a friend of Chuck’s, a fellow warrior dude (mankind project) had died & his caretaker was looking for someone to take his puppy. We went over to meet him, & he just sat there looking timid & a bit depressed. He was so beautiful, white like the cats, with sandy colored ears. I immediately fell in love. His owner had named him Snowy after the cartoon character in The Adventures of Tintin. In retrospect he looked a lot like my childhood dog Penny. We took him out to the park across the street since it seemed he had been kept in much of the time. He ran like the wind & won us over with his smiley face & calm demeanor. The girl even liked him. So the white dog came home to join our 2 white cats, who never really got used to him being in their house, it was like Wild Kingdom’ around here, always a lively show.

Snowy with his beaver toy, which used to be the girls stuffed animal

When we took him to the vet they said he had a degenerative eye disease & that he would eventually go blind. We were to put drops in his eyes 3 times day. But as soon as we started to feed him raw food (Chuck would butcher a whole organic chicken for him every week, along with veggie scraps!) his eyes completely cleared up & he never had another problem.  

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is hag-snowy-by-lw.jpg
Photo by Liba

Somehow he loved me best, & became ‘my dog’ following me around, nudging me for love, sometimes he wouldn’t go for a walk unless I took him. I looked forward to taking him out 3 times a day. I used that time to meditate on the changing seasons & get to know my neighbors for the 1st time.

He was always at my side, sitting next to me as I wrote, & I would take him everywhere if I could. As time went on he really learned to play me, asking to go out back, or on the front porch – let the dog in, let the dog out, sheesh, it was a full time job.

he loved watching the world go by

The last 6 months or so he became incontinent, so we got him doggie diapers. He still wanted to eat & take walks & everything, so we went along. Then he became a bag of bones, stopped being able to go up & down the stairs & the decline became more evident every day. A few times we thought he was done for, but when I asked him if he was ready to go to the ‘group soul’ he would rally, so we hung on.

with fuji

I will spare you all the details, but today, after having a week of dreary wet weather, the sun came out & Snowy made his way to doggie heaven. We buried him in the backyard next to the 2 cats & Chuck’s old dog Hoover…

Snowy with Mitzi

Tonight we will make a bonfire & gather to celebrate his life. So many Snowy stories…my eyes hurt from all the salty tears, but our family is unified after many thoughtful conversations, feeling the blessings from the Animal World which we so gratefully received thru our dear Snowy…

Snowy with Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds our new cat
3 Kings Day chalking the door
Prison Reach Walk-a-thon
Snowy with his ‘Groucho Marx’ eyes

God – Dog – God – Dog – God – Dog

Halo

Amazon.com: Paintings Leopold Kupelweiser Circle Madonna with Halo ...

Re-calling the Corona: An exercise for my Sacred Gateway offering

I have been striving to envision Social Unity, fostering a spiritual connection during this time of social exclusion.  

Good Friday – Part 2 – Peace Evangelical Lutheran church

I invite you to call up in your mind’s eye someone who has crossed the Threshold, or perhaps you want to connect with someone here on earth that could use an influx of spiritual energy.  

HSP icon painting portrait Child Jesus halo Salvator Mundi orb ...

Now picture something specific about them, something active, the way they walk, a turn of phrase they use, their hands when they speak, their laughter. Create a living imagination of their individuality.

Halo by Ban27 | Art, Halo, Fantasy art

Now picture a time when they did something courageous, or beautiful, something virtuous or kind.  

Halo Painting by Nadine Genesse | Artmajeur
Nadine Genesse

While recalling this, send out to them a circle of white light from within your heart to illuminate & generate life force, compassion, unconditional love.

Cross With Halo Painting by Dora Wacker

See all the details, but, then choose a single word or phrase to encapsulate this experience. Write it in your journal, or maybe you will feel called to reach out to this person to share what came to mind, or perhaps you will draw a picture, or make a color or physical gesture that speaks the feeling of your experience.

File:Paul Gauguin - Self-Portrait with Halo and Snake.jpg - Wikipedia
Paul Gauguin

Let it radiate out to form a corona of positive, healing energy that expands out from you to the person, whether they are here, or across the threshold.

Под крыльями двуглавого орла - Великая Дивеевская Тайна - Пасха ...

Let the crown of light expand to encompass the whole earth, the whole universe, every rock, & flower, every crawling, leaping animal, every human being, every spiritual being,

Halo 5 – Anat Propper Goldenberg
Anat Goldenberg

especially the adversarial beings who need it the most.

Acrylic painting of woman with dream catcher halo Dream | Etsy
Laura Dill

Fill yourself with this healing, protective light, let it surround you, & bath you, & bless you.

Painting of Saint Jude Close Up of Second Halo | Canadian Art Online

See you in the halo

~hag

Dear friends, I hope you will join me as we work together to co-create the Sacred Gateway Saturday 18 April 10:45 am – 12:15 pm CDT – The Connection between Epidemics, and the Spiritual World.  And then on Sunday 19 April 12:15 pm – 1:15 pm CDT – ‘Festivals for the Dead, the Unborn, and the Evolution of Earth – featuring Eurythmy with Raven Garland

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The Tuesday Rhythm of the Foundation Stone:

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Ernst Steiner | Fantastic art, Art for art sake, Art
Ernst Steiner

31 March 2020 – “Speaking with the Stars”: First-quarter Moon hits her mark early AM tomorrow morning. Waxing Bella Luna is residing in the feet of Gemini. After dark you’ll find Orion far below Her, Procyon off to Her left, & brighter Capella farther to Her right. More or less above the Moon are Gemini’s head stars, Pollux & Castor.

Vanessa Cooper | Brian Sinfield Art Gallery | Floral painting ...
Vanessa Cooper

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Too Late Have I Loved Thee”: On the Genius of Franz Joseph Haydn ...

1732 – Birthday of Joseph Haydn, Austrian pianist & composer

World's Fair - Official Eiffel Tower Website

1889 – The Eiffel Tower is officially opened

1914 – Deathday of Christian Morgenstern, Rudolf Steiner called him ‘a true representative of Anthroposophy’ – a German author & poet from Munich. He worked for a while as a journalist in Berlin, but spent much of his life traveling through Germany, Switzerland, & Italy, primarily in a vain attempt to recover his health. He had tuberculosis, which he had contracted from his mother. His travels, though they failed to restore him to health, allowed him to meet many of the foremost literary & philosophical figures of his time in central Europe. Morgenstern’s poetry, much of which was inspired by English literary nonsense, is immensely popular, even though he enjoyed very little success during his lifetime. He made fun of literary criticism in “Drei Hasen”, grammar in “Der Werwolf”, narrow-mindedness in “Der Gaul”, & symbolism in “Der Wasseresel”. In “Scholastikerprobleme” he discussed how many angels could sit on a needle. Many Germans know some of his poems & quotations by heart.

• “I shall excavate the strata of my soul.”
• “I’m a man of limits: forever physically, emotionally, morally and artistically on the brink of plunging into the abyss. Yet I manage to keep my balance and possess presence of mind.”
• “I bear no treasures within me. I only possess the power to transform much of what I touch into something of value. I have no depths, save my incessant desire for the depths.”

Morgenstern’s best known works are the Galgenlieder (Gallows Songs, 1905). Christian Morgenstern was also an acclaimed translator, rendering into German various prominent works from Norwegian and French, including the dramas and poems of Henrik Ibsen, Knut Hamsun, Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson & August Strindberg.

SALVADOR DALI VERICHRON KIRCH MELTING CLOCK. 14 x 11. WORKS for ...
Salvador Dali

1918 – Daylight saving time goes into effect in the United States for the first time.

1927 – Deathday of Mabel Collins a British theosophist & author of popular occult novels, & the theses ‘Light on the Path’ (1885). She was also a fashion writer & an anti-vivisection campaigner.

1931 – An earthquake in Nicaragua destroys Managua; killing 2,000.

March 31 1959 Dalai Lama Exile Begins | Craig Hill Training Services

1959 – The 14th Dalai Lama, crosses the border into India and is granted political asylum.

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No photo description available.

Greetings friends – The Central Regional Council will sponsor a Zoom Study Group Meeting for April 8th on the Karma of Epidemics (details below)

ALL are welcome to join us. April 8th 2020, 7:15 pm CST (see audio conference details below)

“Imagine a people which was composed entirely of liars, the astral plane would be populated solely by the corresponding demons and these demons would be able to express themselves in a constitutional tendency to epidemics. Thus there is a certain species of bacilli who are the carriers of infectious diseases; these beings are the progeny of the lies told by human beings; they are nothing else than physically embodied demons generated by lies.” (GA 99 – L.6)

Theosophy of the Rosicrucian – The Law of Destiny – Schmidt Number: S-1539
Lecture VI https://wn.rsarchive.org/GA/GA0099/19070530p01.html

Audio Conference Details:

Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/451374910

Meeting ID: 451 374 910

One tap mobile
+13126266799,,451374910# US (Chicago)
+16465588656,,451374910# US (New York)

Dial by your location
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
+1 646 558 8656 US (New York)
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
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Meeting ID: 451 374 910
Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/adZ7jft0hb

If you have questions, please contact Alberto Loya aloyavaca@peoplepc.com
Let us stand together with courage in this now, as we look to our future with equanimity, holding all that comes before us as being guided by a divine directive waiting to be revealed by our patient spiritual investigation.

Many of us are doing constructive things like the Hallelujah & the Soul Hygiene exercises in Eurythmy, & The Foundation Stone Meditation at Sunrise (or anytime) every morning to create a high vibration of Love & Light – Please join us for the healing of all.

Yours in service ~The CRC team: Marianne Fieber, Alberto Loya, Hazel Archer-Ginsberg, David Howerton, Lisa Dalton

art by Daniel Ospina

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Ara Isaakyan

‘The Three Days’, an On-Line Easter Festival with the Central Reginal Council

Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday, all three days: April 9-12, 2020 from 3 pm – 4:15 pm CDT

We will be taking up indications from Emil Bock’s ‘The Three Years” to artistically explore the Spiritual Science of ‘The Paschal Triduum’: Following the Cosmic Sun on the ultimate path of initiation, from the Free-Will Sacrifice, through the Conquering of Death, into the Resurrection of the New Sun.

How can we as human beings in community bring a practical understanding to these mysteries?

Join us as we strive to gain the forces needed to do our part in furthering this impulse in world evolution.

FREE – ALL are Welcome – Zoom Call and other details to follow

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

May Hope Spring Eternal –

The CRC – Marianne Fieber, Alberto Loya, Hazel Archer-Ginsberg, David Howerton, Lisa Dalton 

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The Sacred Gateway: Online Conference

Conscious Living, Conscious Dying,
and the Journey Beyond

APRIL 17-19, 2020 

  • Support those who are crossing and who have crossed over 
  • Expand your practice and knowledge of working with the dying
  • Learn more about the soul’s journey from death to new life 

Through interactive workshops, biography work, keynote discussions with Rev. Patrick Kennedy and Dr. Melinda Toney,  workshops with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg,  Sandra LaGrega Jennifer Fox, and more, as well as experiential and artistic activities, we will consciously explore the spiritual and practical aspect of human life and death. 

Conference Fees:

  • $200 Supporter ~ Live Event + Recordings and Resources, plus Two Sacred Gateway Webinar Series (You can see those by clicking here and here) + One Recorded Online Community Gathering ($80 value), Podcast Links. This level fully supports this conference and other events like it!
  • $150 Resource Package ~ Live Event + Recordings and Resources, plus Two Sacred Gateway Webinar Series (You can see those by clicking here and here) + One Recorded Online Community Gathering ($80 value), and Podcast Links 
  • $95 Regular Rate ~ Live Event + Recordings and Resources 
  • $45 Youth Rate (Age 35 and under) ~ Live Event + Recordings and Resources
  • $45 Keynotes Only ~ Live Keynotes + Recordings 
    Financial Assistance Available (Email programs@anthroposophy.org) 

Conference Schedule – All start times in Eastern Standard Time 
(Note: Workshops Subject to Additions/Minor Changes)

Friday, April 17

7:30pm-9pm Conference Opening and Keynote

True Living is Dying: The Life-Giving Power of Death Keynote Discussion and Q&A with Rev. Patrick Kennedy 

Saturday April 18 

11:00-11:45am Welcome, Introductions and Biography Work

11:45am-1:15pm Two-Day Themed Workshops (Choose one theme and attend Saturday, and Sunday) 

  • From Loss to Connection Through Reading for the Dead and Writing with Marianne Dietzel and Maureen Flannery
  • The Lemniscate Journey: Exploring the Relationships in Our Lives from Birth to Death and Death to Rebirth Through Biography and Social Art with Sandra LaGrega and Jennifer Fox
  • Giving Way to Grace: Chrysalis Emerging from Conscious Living and Conscious Dying with Melinda Toney, MD, Carole Shoaf End-Of-Life Doula and Katherine Blackburn, End-Of-Life Doula and Esoteric Christian Minister
  • NEW: The Connection between Epidemics, and the Spiritual World with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

1:15-1:30pm Break

1:30-2:30pm The Vigil of the Heart with Linda Bergh and Ellen Hufschmidt 

2:30-3:00pm Break

 3:00-4:30pm Topic Workshops

  • Acknowledging the End with Jolie Luba
  • After Deathcare as a Healing Art with Tischia Bluske

4:30-5:00pm Break

5:00-6:00pm Proactive Grieving: The Sacred Gateway as a Bridge Keynote Conversation with Dr. Melinda Toney  

6:15- 7:00pm Group Reflections and Closing

Sunday, April 19 

11:00-11:45am Welcome, Introductions and Biography Work

11:45-12:45 Consecrating our Dying Keynote with Patrick Kennedy

12:45-1:15 Break

1:15-2:30 Two-Day Themed Workshops

  • From Loss to Connection Through the Arts: Reading, Writing and Drawing with Marianne Dietzel and Maureen Flannery
  • The Lemniscate Journey: Exploring the Relationships in Our Lives from Birth to Death and Death to Rebirth Through Biography and Social Art with Sandra LaGrega and Jennifer Fox
  • Giving Way to Grace: Chrysalis Emerging from Conscious Living and Conscious Dying with Melinda Toney, MD, Carole Shoaf End-Of-Life Doula and Katherine Blackburn, End-Of-Life Doula and Esoteric Christian Minister
  • Festivals for the Dead, the Unborn, and the Evolution of Earth with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg, Eurythmy with Raven Garland

2:30-2:45pm Break

2:45-3:30pm Sacred Burial Ceremony and Conference Closing with Linda Bergh, Hazel Archer-Ginsberg and Ultra Archer-Ginsberg 

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER! 

Click the photos below to hear leading thoughts from our amazing presenters! 

Giving Way to Grace: Chrysalis Emerging from Conscious Living and Conscious Dying with Melinda Toney, MD, Carole Shoaf End-Of-Life Doula and Katherine Blackburn, End-Of-Life Doula and Esoteric Christian Minister

Melinda Toney
Carole Schoaf

The Connection between Epidemics, and the Spiritual World on Saturday & on Sunday: Festivals for the Dead, the Unborn and the Evolution of Earth -Then and Now with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

From Loss to Connection Through Reading for the Dead and Writing with Marianne Dietzel and Maureen Flannery

The Lemniscate Journey: Exploring the Relationships in Our Lives from Birth to Death and Death to Rebirth Through Biography and Social Art with Sandra LaGrega and Jennifer Fox

The Vigil of the Heart with Linda Bergh and Ellen Hufschmidt 

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