Category Archives: Soul to Soul

PI day

Poetry, Quote, Remembering, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Soul to Soul, Speaking with the Stars

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

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

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

***

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

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

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

Antonio Molinari

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

Anglia Campus

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

 Titian

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1883 – Deathda y of Karl Marx

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

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

***

Lisa gibbions

POD (Poem Of the Day)

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

***

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

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

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

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

There I find the secret path…

Lecture, Poetry, Quote, Remembering, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Soul to Soul, Speaking with the Stars

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

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

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

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

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

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

***

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1864 – The Great Sheffield Flood kills 1238 people in England

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

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

1990 – Lithuania declares itself independent from the Soviet Union

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

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

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

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

***

POD (Poem Of the Day)

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

***

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

Come join us for more upcoming events:

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

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

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

Holy Saturday 2pm – 4pm

El Greco

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

~The Mystery of Golgotha – Then and Now~

Details to follow

Xox

~ Hazel Archer Ginsberg

the Deathday of the “Angelic Doctor”

Celestial Event, Insight, Lecture, Poetry, Quote, Remembering, Soul to Soul, Speaking with the Stars

7 March 2017 – Astro-Weather: English astronomer Sir John Frederick William Herschel was born on this date in 1792. In 1864, he published the General Catalogue of Nebulae & Clusters, which astronomers still use today

After sunset, look below the Moon for Procyon & above the Moon for fainter Pollux & Castor.

As seen from Earth, both Mercury & Venus have phases like our moon. That’s because they circle the sun inside Earth’s orbit. Planets that orbit between Earth & the sun are known as inner planets.

Inner planets can never be at “opposition,” which is when the planet & the sun are on opposite sides of Earth.

But they can be at “conjunction,” which is when a planet, the sun & Earth are all in a straight line. Conjunctions can happen in 2 ways: once when the planet is on the opposite side of the sun from Earth & again when it’s on the same side of the sun as Earth.

When a planet is on the opposite side of the sun from Earth, we say it is at “superior conjunction.” As the planet moves out from behind the sun & gets closer to Earth, we see less & less of the lit side. We see phases, similar to our moon’s phases.

Hilma af Klint

 Mercury is at superior conjunction today March 7. A few weeks later, the messenger of the gods emerges from behind the sun & we can once again observe it. By the end of March we’ll see a last-quarter Mercury. On April 20 Mercury reaches “inferior conjunction.”

Brilliant Venus is also racing toward its own inferior conjunction on March 25. Watch its crescent get thinner & thinner as the planet’s size appears larger & larger, because it is getting closer to Earth.

Finally, look for Jupiter to rise in the East. It will be visible all month long from late evening until dawn.

***

Albertus Magnus

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Nickname in school=The ‘dumb ox’ also known as the ‘Angelic Doctor’

1274 – Deathday of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Italian priest & philosopher – In Rudolf Steiner’s historic sketch of the life of thought in the Middle Ages, he shows in 3 short lectures how Albertus Magnus ( an earlier incarnation  of Ita Wegman) & Thomas Aquinas ( an earlier incarnation of Aristotle & Rudolf Steiner himself) & the Scholastics of the 12th century gave an impetus towards what in the twentieth century has come to be known as Spiritual Science, or Anthroposophy.

A system of thinking & a method of investigation, in order to be effective, must go forward with the requirements of the century, otherwise philosophy & religion lag behind & miss their object. The theories of Thomas Aquinas, which were intended to be progressive, have become the property of a mighty dogma & the method, instead of being an instrument for progress, becomes an impediment in the machine.

Rome, while glorifying Thomas Aquinas as a Church Father, has relegated his stupendous thought to a closed compartment only to be opened by those specially authorized. Rudolf Steiner puts him in the forefront of evolution, &, by Spiritual Science, endeavors to liberate him from the fetters of dogma.

***

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~Where there is a road
A wise hag walks thinking,
Bent under the weight of her soul
Clinging like a child to her back,
She spits words into the wind where they cover themselves 
& wait like seeds…
She knows
The wheat will rise up singing…
~ Hazel Archer Ginsberg

***

Venus retrograde 2017 lasts from March 4 to April 15 & spans 13º Aries back to 26º Pisces:

‘I said cautiously, “Venus is the power that we invoke in spring, in the garden, when things begin growing. And we call the evening star Venus.”

He thought it over. Perhaps having grown up in the country, among pagans like me, helped him understand my bewilderment. “So do we, he said. “But Venus also became more…With the help of the Greeks. They call her Aphrodite…There was a great poet who praised her in Latin. Delight of men and gods, he called her, dear nurturer. Under the sliding star signs she fills the ship-laden sea and the fruitful earth with her being; through her the generations are conceived and rise up to see the sun; from her the storm clouds flee; to her the earth, the skilful maker, offers flowers. The wide levels of the sea smile at her, and all the quiet sky shines and streams with light…”

It was the Venus I had prayed to, it was my prayer, though I had no such words. They filled my eyes with tears and my heart with inexpressible joy.” ~Ursula K. Le Guin, ‘Lavinia’

March In

Insight, Poetry, Quote, Remembering, Soul to Soul, Speaking with the Stars, Spring

6 March 2017 – Astro-Weather: Around 7pm CST the brightest star in the night sky — Sirius (Alpha Canis Majoris) dazzles due south. Sirius triples the light output of Orion’s brightest star, blue-white Rigel (Beta Orionis). Sirius comes from the Greek term for “sparkling” or “scorching” & is attributed to the Greek poet Hesiod, who lived in the latter half of the 8th century BC. Although Sirius ranks number one among stars, both Venus & Jupiter outshine it tonight. Jupiter appears twice as bright, & the light of Love from Venus surpasses them both.

“When we look up into the starry heavens, the feeling of our soul’s home awakens in us. The feeling awakens: Before you came down to earth to a new incarnation you yourself were in those stars, and out of the stars , the moral law was imparted to you.” ~Rudolf Steiner

***

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

12 BC – The Roman Emperor Augustus is named Pontifex Maximus, incorporating the position into that of the Emperor.

632 – The Farewell Sermon (Khutbah, Khutbatul Wada’) of the Islamic prophet Muhammad

845 – Execution of the 42 Martyrs of Amorium at Samarra

1251 – Deathday of Rose of Viterbo, Italian saint, known for her mystical gifts of foretelling the future & having miraculous powers.  Born of poor & pious parents, even as a child Rose had a great desire to pray & to aid the poor. When she was 3 years old, she allegedly raised to life her maternal aunt. At the age of 7, she had already lived the life of a recluse, devoting herself to penances. She prayed much for the conversion of sinners. Rose was not yet 10 years old when the Blessed Virgin Mary is said to have instructed her to enter the Third Order of St. Francis & to preach penance in Viterbo.

In January 1250, her native city was in revolt against the pope. When Rose took the pope’s side against the emperor, she & her family were exiled from the city & took refuge in Soriano nel Cimino. When the pope’s side won in Viterbo, Rose was allowed to return.

Rose foretold the speedy death of the emperor, a prophecy fulfilled on December 13, 1250. Soon afterwards she went to Vitorchiano, whose inhabitants, were affected by a bad sorceress. Rose secured the conversion of all, even of the sorceress, reportedly by standing unscathed for three hours in the flames of a burning pyre

1475 – Birthday of Michelangelo, Italian painter & sculptor

1619 – Birthday of Cyrano de Bergerac, French author & playwright

1665 – The first joint Secretary of the Royal Society, Henry Oldenburg, publishes the first issue of Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society

1806 – Birthday of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, English-Italian poet & translator

1820 – The Missouri Compromise is signed into law by President James Monroe. The compromise allows Missouri to enter the Union as a slave state, brings Maine into the Union as a free state, & makes the rest of the northern part of the Louisiana Purchase territory slavery-free

1857 – The Supreme Court of the United States rules in the Dred Scott v. Sandford case -a landmark decision, it held that “a negro, whose ancestors were imported into the U.S., and sold as slaves”, whether enslaved or free, could not be an American citizen and therefore had no standing to sue in federal court”, & that the federal government had no power to regulate slavery in the federal territories acquired after the creation of the United States. Dred Scott, an enslaved man of “the negro African race” who had been taken by his owners to free states attempted to sue for his freedom. In a 7–2 decision written by Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, the court denied Scott’s request. The decision was only the 2nd time that the Supreme Court had ruled an Act of Congress to be unconstitutional.

Although Taney hoped that his ruling would finally settle the slavery question, the decision immediately spurred vehement dissent from anti-slavery elements in the North, especially Republicans. Many contemporary lawyers, & most modern legal scholars, consider the ruling regarding slavery in the territories to be dictum, not binding precedent. The decision proved to be an indirect catalyst for the American Civil War. It was functionally superseded by the Civil Rights Act of 1866 & by the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, adopted in 1868, which gave African Americans full citizenship.

The Supreme Court’s decision in Dred Scott v. Sandford is unanimously denounced by scholars, it “stands first in any list of the worst Supreme Court decisions.” “The Court’s greatest self-inflicted wound”. “Universally condemned as the U.S. Supreme Court’s worst decision “Unquestionably, our court’s worst decision ever”

1869 – Dmitri Mendeleev presents the first periodic table to the Russian Chemical Society

1888 – Deathday of Louisa May Alcott, American novelist & poet

1943 – Norman Rockwell published Freedom from Want in The Saturday Evening Post with a matching essay by Carlos Bulosan as part of the Four Freedoms series

1986 – Deathday of Georgia O’Keeffe, American painter

***

Grace Kahn

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~ The words I spell
Make the worlds I think –
May the rhythm of my heart stir music
To rouse the seed from the darkness –
A witness to what open hands can create
As we ride together into the fresh Spring
Of freedom
Toward destiny divined
~ hag

***

MARCH in like a lion…Out like a lamb

March is abundant with ‘Holy Days’, finding voice through many cultural expressions.

The Full Storm Moon of March brings the Jewish Festival Purim, a joyful spring holiday that features a festive meal, gift-giving, costumes, & noisemakers. The word “Purim” means “lots,” & refers to Haman’s casting of lots in the story of Esther. It is customary to hold carnival-like celebrations. Americans sometimes refer to Purim as the Jewish Mardi Gras.

The 15th is the famous Ides of March; which we all know is the day Julius Caesar was warned by the soothsayers to beware; the day he was assassinated. But did you know that according to the ancient Roman calendar, the Ides of March was considered New Year’s Day, & marked the 1st day of Spring?

March 17, brings us the ‘wearing of the green’ for St. Patrick’s Day. This former pagan used the shamrock to teach folks about the Trinity.

The 20th happens to be the Iranian New Year celebration, Norooz, or ‘New Day’.

In 622 AD, Mohammed led his followers from Mecca to Medina to escape assassination. According to the story, when his pursuers reached the cave where Mohammed & his followers had taken shelter for the night, they found a dove nesting in front of it & the entrance covered by a spider’s web. So the pursuers passed on, leaving them in peace. Mohammed continued on to Medina, where he & his followers were able to worship freely. Muslims consider this flight — or Hijrah — to be the beginning of their calendar year. People worship quietly on this day, which begins with the 1st sighting of the crescent moon, & in keeping with the rebirth of nature is also considered the 1st day of Spring.

Here on this side of the globe we call it the Spring or Vernal Equinox, also known as: Alban Eilir, Eostar, the Feast of Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Lady Day, Festival of Trees, NawRuz, Ostara, & the Rites of Spring – when the Sun enters the 1st sign of fiery Aries, as opposed to the lunar cycle used by the ancients.

Day & night are equal, poised & balanced, but about to tip over to the side of light. It is sacred to the twilight time of dawn, youth, the morning star & the east. The Saxon goddess, Eostre (from whose name we get the direction East & the holiday Easter) is a dawn goddess, like Aurora & Eos. Just as the dawn is the time of new light, so the vernal equinox is the time of new life.

The Equinox is all about harmony & balance – that brief yet eternal time of equilibrium, when day & night are of equal length. In the fall, the darkness holds sway, but now for the spring season the light is triumphant.

What a perfect opportunity to tap into this celestial energy as it intersects our earthly ecliptic, a perfect opportunity to bring balance into our lives, harmony into our bodies.

We all have a mixture of yin & yang, darkness & light, female & male energies within us. Do they both have equal say? Or is one force overshadowing the other? Perhaps we are consciously putting more emphasis on one, to help develop that side, or maybe we just feel unbalanced & we don’t know why? Are we thinking too much, are we too sensitive, too busy doing, to just be? Is your left side tighter or looser than your right? Which side do you part your hair? Ah ha…! These are questions only you can answer for your Self.

Two other holidays also get mixed up in this ancient symbolism of Spring’s fertility. March 25th is called the ‘Annunciation of Mary.’ – the day that the Angel Gabriel announced that Mary, the Christian version of The Sophia, was pregnant with the son of god ; who is born 9 months later, on Dec. 25th. How’s that for a nice little spring fertility symbol.

It is also fitting that March is International Women’s month, since this is the time of the rebirth of nature. It’s a gentle reminder that we give birth to the future. The future is in our hands, the hands of the midwife, the lap of the mother, & the hands of the Peacemaker.

So let’s honor ourselves & thank the powers of love & light, knowing, March may come in like a lion, but it goes out like a lamb – As we re-conceive of ourselves in alignment with the powers of Spring…

Peace & Blessed Bee…~ Hazel Archer Ginsberg

 

Fastnacht

Celestial Event, Lecture, Poetry, Quote, Remembering, Soul to Soul, Speaking with the Stars

28 February 2017 – Astro-Weather: Catch the thin crescent Moon below Venus after sunset. The Moon is only a few days old & as the Moon thickens it forms a triangle with bright Venus & fainter Mars

Tonight will also be a great time to get to know Lepus the Hare, one of the sky’s lesser-known constellations. Approximately a dozen medium-bright stars form Lepus, which sits directly below (that is, south of) Orion the Hunter. Lepus has two named stars, Arneb (Alpha Leporis) &  Nihal (Beta Leporis)

‘Astrology is astronomy brought down to earth and applied to the affairs of man.’ ~R.W. Emerson

***

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

“History is the essence of innumerable biographies.” ~ Thomas Carlyle, “

Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) *see essay below

1525 – Aztec king Cuauhtémoc is executed on the order of conquistador Hernán Cortés

1621 – Deathday of Cosimo II de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany

1827 – The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad is incorporated, becoming the first railroad in America offering commercial transportation of both people & freight

1849 – Regular steamboat service from the west to the east coast of the United States begins with the arrival of the SS California in San Francisco Bay, four months 22 days after leaving New York Harbor

1885 – The American Telephone & Telegraph Company is incorporated in New York as the subsidiary of American Bell Telephone

1933 – Gleichschaltung: In Nazi terminology, was the process of Nazification by which Nazi Germany successively established a system of totalitarian control & coordination over all aspects of society, “from the economy and trade associations to the media, culture and education. The Reichstag Fire Decree is passed in Germany a day after the Reichstag fire, issued by German President Paul von Hindenburg on the advice of Chancellor Adolf Hitler in direct response to the Reichstag fire of 27 February 1933. The decree nullified many of the key civil liberties of German citizens. With Nazis in powerful positions in the German government, the decree was used as the legal basis for the imprisonment of anyone considered to be opponents of the Nazis, & to suppress publications not considered “friendly” to the Nazi cause. The decree is considered by historians to be one of the key steps in the establishment of a one-party Nazi state in Germany

1942 – The heavy cruiser USS Houston is sunk in the Battle of Sunda Strait with 693 crew members killed, along with HMAS Perth which lost 375 men

1953 – James Watson & Francis Crick announce to friends that they have determined the chemical structure of DNA

1954 – The first color television sets using the NTSC standard are offered for sale to the general public

1958 – A school bus in Floyd County, Kentucky hits a wrecker truck & plunges down an embankment into the rain-swollen Levisa Fork river. The driver & 26 children die in what remains one of the worst school bus accidents in U.S. history

1975 – In London, an underground train fails to stop at Moorgate terminus station & crashes into the end of the tunnel, killing 43 people

1985 – The Provisional Irish Republican Army carries out a mortar attack on the Royal Ulster Constabulary police station at Newry, killing 9 officers

1986 – Olof Palme, 26th Prime Minister of Sweden, is assassinated in Stockholm

1997 – An earthquake in northern Iran is responsible for about 3,000 deaths

1997 – GRB 970228, a highly luminous flash of gamma rays, strikes the Earth for 80 seconds, providing early evidence that gamma-ray bursts occur well beyond the Milky Way

1998 – First flight of RQ-4 Global Hawk, the first unmanned aerial vehicle certified to file its own flight plans and fly regularly in U.S. civilian airspace

2004 – Over one million Taiwanese participating in the 228 Hand-in-Hand rally form a 310 mile long human chain to commemorate the ‘February 28 Incident’ in 1947: an anti-government uprising in Taiwan that was violently suppressed by the Kuomintang-led Republic of China government, which killed thousands of civilians beginning on February 28, 1947. Estimates of the number of deaths vary from 50,000 or more. The massacre marked the beginning of the White Terror period, in which tens of thousands more inhabitants vanished, died, or were imprisoned. This incident is one of the most important events in Taiwan’s modern history, & was a critical impetus for the Taiwan independence movement

2013 – Pope Benedict XVI resigns as the pope of the Catholic Church, becoming the first pope to do so since 1415

***

Judson Huss

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~The house fills with birds
As i enter the circle of sun
I vibrate the lyrics to their song
As the hawk pauses
Before the eggs in my nest
I call the sparrow
& become a sliver star hanging,
Swift water running,
A lowing cow,
The thought of myself,
In my mother’s forehead
~hag

***

*Mardi Gras, Carnival, Fat Tuesday, Shrove Tuesday, Pancake Tuesday, Fastnacht

The date of Mardi Gras varies based on the moveable feast of Easter, the Full Moon & the Spring Equinox.

The history of a Mardi Gras celebration existed many years before Europeans came to the New World. Sometime in the 2nd Century, usually the ides of February the 15 according to the Julian calendar, Ancient Romans would observe what they called the Lupercalia, a circus-type festival which was, in many respects, quite similar to the present day Mardi Gras. This festival honored the Roman deity, Lupercus, a pastoral God associated with Faunus or the Satyr. Although Lupercus is derived from the Latin Lupus meaning “wolf”.

When Christianity arrived in Rome, the dignitaries of the early Church decided it would be more prudent to incorporate certain aspects of such rituals into the new faith rather than attempt to abolish them altogether. This added a Christian interpretation to the ancient custom & the Carnival became a time of abandon & merriment which proceeded the Lenten period (a symbolic Christian penitence of 40 days commencing on Ash Wednesday & ending at Easter).

During this time, there would be feasting which lasted several days & participants would indulge in voluntary madness by donning masks, clothing themselves in the likeness of specters & generally giving themselves up to Bacchus & Venus. All aspects of pleasure were considered to be allowable during the Carnival celebration & today’s modern festivities are thought by some to be more reminiscent of the Roman Saturnalia rather than Lupercalia, or to be linked to even earlier Pagan festivals.

From Rome, the celebration spread to other European countries. In medieval times, a similar-type festival to that of the present day Mardi Gras was given by monarchs & lords prior to Lent in order to ceremoniously conscript new knights into service & hold feasts in their honor. The gentry would also ride through the countryside rewarding peasants with cakes (thought by some to be the origin of the King Cake), coins (perhaps the origin of present day gifts of Mardi Gras doubloons) & other trinkets.

In Germany, there still remains a Carnival similar to that of the one held in New Orleans. Known as Fasching, the celebrations begin on Twelfth Night & continue until Shrove Tuesday. (In German-America, special “doughnuts” are sold for this holiday, called Fasnachts.)

To a lesser degree, this festival is still celebrated in France & Spain. A Carnival season was also celebrated in England until the Nineteenth Century, originating as a type of “renewal” festival that incorporated fertility motifs & ball games which frequently turned into riots between opposing villages, followed by feasts of pancakes & the imbibing of alcohol. The preparing & consumption of pancakes on Shrove Tuesday is a still a tradition in the United Kingdom, where pancake tossing & pancake races (during which a pancake must be tossed a certain number of times) are still popular. One of the most famous of such competitions, which takes place in Olney, Buckinghamshire, is said to date from 1445. It is a race for women only & for those who have lived in the Parish for at least three months. An apron & head-covering are requisite. The course is 415 yards & the pancake must be tossed at least three times during the race. The winner receives a kiss from the Ringer of the Pancake Bell & a prayer book from the local vicar. “Shrove” is derived from the Old English word “shrive,” which means to “confess all sins.”

It is generally accepted that Mardi Gras came to America in 1699 with the French explorer, Sieur d’Iberville. The festival had been celebrated as a major holiday in Paris since the Middle Ages. Iberville sailed into the Gulf of Mexico &, from there, launched an expedition along the Mississippi River. By March 3, 1699, Iberville had set up a camp on the West Bank of the River, about 60 miles South of the present day City of New Orleans in the State of Louisiana. Since that day was the very one on which Mardi Gras was being celebrated in France, Iberville named the site Point du Mardi Gras in honor of the festival.

According to some sources, however, the Mardi Gras of New Orleans began in 1827 when a group of students who had recently returned from school in Paris donned strange costumes & danced their way through the streets. In this version, it is said that the inhabitants of New Orleans were swiftly captured by the enthusiasm of the youths & promptly followed suit.

Other sources maintain that the Mardi Gras celebration originated with the arrival of early French settlers to the State of Louisiana. Nevertheless, it is known that from 1827 to 1833, the New Orleans’ Mardi Gras celebrations became more elaborate, culminating in an annual Mardi Gras Ball. The Carnival was well-established by the middle of the Nineteenth Century when the Mystick Krewe of Comus presented its 1857 Torchlight Parade with a theme taken from “Paradise Lost” written by John Milton.

In French, “Mardi Gras” literally means “Fat Tuesday,” so named because it falls on the day before Ash Wednesday, the last day prior to Lent – a 40-day season of prayer & fasting observed by the Church which ends on Easter Sunday. The origin of “Fat Tuesday” is believed to have come from the ancient Pagan custom of parading a fat ox through the town streets. Such Pagan holidays were filled with excessive eating, drinking & general bawdiness prior to a period of fasting.

Since modern times Carnival Season is sandwiched between Christmas & Lent. Easter always falls on a Sunday, but it can be any Sunday from March 23 through April 25, its actual date being the Sunday which follows the first Full Moon after the Spring Equinox. Mardi Gras is always 47 days prior to this allotted Sunday (the 40 days of Lent plus seven Sundays).

The beginning of the Carnival Season itself, however, is also fixed, being January 6, which is the Feast of the Epiphany, otherwise known as Little Christmas or Twelfth Night. Since the date of Mardi Gras varies, the length of the Carnival Season also varies from year-to-year. The origin of the word “Carnival” is from the Latin for “farewell to the flesh,” a time when one is expected to forego earthly pleasures prior to the restrictions of the Lenten Season, & is thought to be derived from the feasts of the Middle Ages known as carnis levamen or “solace of the flesh.”

In New Orleans in 1833, Bernard Xavier de Marigny de Mandeville, a wealthy plantation owner, solicited a large amount of money in order to help finance an organized Mardi Gras celebration. It was not until 1837, however, that the first Mardi Gras Parade was staged. Two years later, a description of the 1839 Parade noted that it consisted of a single float. Nonetheless, it was considered to be a great success & apparently, the crowd roared hilariously as this somewhat crude float moved through the streets of the city. Since that time, Mardi Gras in New Orleans has been an overwhelming success, continuing to grow with additional organizations participating each year.

The traditional colors of Mardi Gras are purple (symbolic of royalty & justice), green (symbolic of fertility & faith) & gold (symbolic of grace & power). The accepted story behind the original selection of these colors originates from 1872 when the Grand Duke Alexis Romanoff of Russia visited New Orleans. It is said that the Grand Duke came to the city in pursuit of an actress named Lydia Thompson. During his stay, he was given the honor of selecting the official Mardi Gras colors by the Krewe of Rex.  These colors also become the colors of the House of Romanoff. (The vestments worn by Catholic bishops & priests on Ash Wednesday are purple & gold, so that may have influenced the choice?)

Today, Louisiana’s Mardi Gras is celebrated not only in New Orleans, but in most American cities on some level. Similar celebrations are also held in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro, arguably the world’s most elaborate Carnival location with its Samba Dromo parades, which annually attract a huge number of tourists from all corners of the globe. Regardless of where the festivals take place, however, all share a common party atmosphere inherently associated with the celebrations.

Mardi Gras is always followed by Ash Wednesday, it’s polar opposite in character. May your fasting be as glorious as your feasting

Xox~ Hazel Archer Ginsberg

***

Anthroposophy speaks to every thinking human being, each individual with a feeling heart, all who would put good will into action. Every one of us, in our uniqueness, is destined to play a part in the transfiguration of the universe.

By committing to transforming ourselves we change society & are better able to put the riddles of existence into perspective. Anthroposophy is a Spiritual Science, & a path of initiation into the ‘New Mysteries’ appropriate to our modern era. We learn to be aware of our Higher Self in such a way that a feeling of responsibility fills us.

Let us experience this feeling pouring into our souls as the warm, glowing, spiritual life blood of a new culture. Let us recognize that in our time human beings need new moral, intellectual, & spiritual impulses. Let us feel how fresh concepts of duty & of love arise & take hold of our souls. The destiny of humanity requires our conviction. So let us put into practice this new spiritual revelation.

The insights given to us by Rudolf Steiner’s work, brings into focus the essential nature of the human being, & the evolution of consciousness in connection with spiritual guidance. Turbulent times are ahead of us. Much of the old is used up or worn out, & the new is wanting to be poured into humanity from the spiritual world.

Do you feel called to receive these inspirations – to take on the responsibility – to join with other kindred souls – to explore & walk together on the road to knowledge, which leads the spiritual part of the human being to the spirit of the universe?

Come join Hazel Archer Ginsberg – Festivals Coordinator & Council Member of the Chicago Rudolf Steiner Branch, and the Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society. Founder of Reverse Ritual – Understanding Anthroposophy through the Rhythms of the Year– Presenter, Poet, & Trans-denominational Minister.

 

What is Anthroposophy? & The Spiritual Guidance of the Individual and Humanity’

March 3-4, 2017
An Evening Discourse & Full Day Workshop

Friday Evening: What is Anthroposophy? A hands-on discourse.

What can the human being (anthropos) of today do to recognize our inherent wisdom (sophia) to access the source of spiritual knowledge, for our own inner development, and for the evolution of the earth and all of humanity?

What would it be like to support each other in community, as we strive to penetrate the mystery of our relationship with the spiritual world?

How does this ‘Spiritual Science’ built on the research of Rudolf Steiner, speak to the riddles of existence: our artistic needs, the truth of karma, the mystery of evil, life after death and so much more?

Saturday: An Experiential Three Part Workshop* ‘
‘The Spiritual Guidance of the Individual and Humanity: Some Results of Spiritual-Scientific Research into Human History and Development’ is a translation of Die geistige Führung des Menschen und der Menschheit: Geistes wissenschaftliche Ergebnisse ueber die Menschheits-Entwickelung published by Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach, Switzerland, 1974. This short book consists of three sections. Each section was originally a lecture (6, 7, and 8 June 1911) but was subsequently reworked by Steiner and cast into the form of an essay. Some of the topics treated in this book are: the nature of the brain, the development of speech, angelic beings, ancient language, Zarathustra, Buddha, and Christ. It is available without a fee online at Rudolf Steiner Archives.

Session #1 – 10 am – 12 noon:
• Introductions
• The divine wisdom working in the human being in the 1st three years of life.
• Through inner striving, we can contact again and consciously build on this wisdom which is connected to the Christ impulse.
• Activity- Biography work: Our 1st conscious memory – a preview of the “I”.

Noon – 1:30 pm – Lunch

Session #2 – 1:30 pm – 3:30 pm:
• The childlike condition of humanity in ancient times, directed by higher spiritual beings.
• A look into the evolution of these guiding spirits –progressive as well as regressive –
• Revealing the necessity of the ‘two kinds of evil’.
• The importance of Spiritual Science to avoid error.
• Activity – Labyrinth Walk

3:30 pm – 4 pm – Break

Session #3 – 4 pm – 6 pm:
• A survey of the Post-Atlantean age, our present epoch.
• The Christ connection with the progressive spiritual beings
• Modern science as the work of the regressive spiritual beings
• A peek into the future
• Activity – The Golden Legend & The Rose Cross Mediation: An artistic rendering

Come Explore this Modern Path of Initiation with: Hazel Archer-Ginsberg – Festivals Coordinator & Council Member of the Chicago Rudolf Steiner Branch, and the Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society. Founder of Reverse Ritual – Understanding Anthroposophy Through the Rhythms of the Year–Presenter, Poet, & Trans-denominational Minister.

*Workshops can be taken as a whole or individually, see registration options.
*Bring your own lunch on Saturday or choose the catered option.
Sign up now!  A minimum number of registrants are needed for this weekend workshop.

For more info click HERE

Location: Michael Fields Agricultural Institute, East Troy
Workshop Fee: $25 for each individual session or register for all 4 sessions for $80. Additional $15 fee for catered lunch (optional).
Price is $35 per session at door (day of class).

REGISTER ONLINE HERE