Category Archives: Soul to Soul

Love in Wisdom is Gathering

December 5, 2016Chicago Event, Insight, Meditation, Poetry, Quote, Remembering, Soul to Soul, Speaking with the Stars~hag

5 December 2016 – Astro-Weather: At nightfall, look lower right of the Moon for Mars & much farther lower right from there for bright Venus. Meanwhile, well to the Moon’s lower left is Fomalhaut.

This is also a good week to target the dwarf planet Ceres, the largest object in the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars & Jupiter. It lies among the background stars of northern Cetus & appears more than halfway to the zenith in the southern sky during early evening

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

“HEALING WILL COME TO OUR AGE when the thoughts and ideas that are applied to social conditions and political life are in living contact with spiritual reality”. ~ Rudolf Steiner

Saint Nicholas’ Eve – Sinterklaas – a mythical figure with legendary, historical & folkloric origins based on Saint Nicholas. Other names for the figure include De Sint (“The Saint”), De Goede Sint (“The Good Saint”), & De Goedheiligman (“The Good Holy Man”)

Sinterklaas is celebrated annually with the giving of gifts on 5 December, the night before the feast of Saint Nicholas – the primary source of the popular Christmas icon of Santa Claus

David & Abigail by Antonio Molinari

Feast Day of Abigail (Hebrew: “my father’s joy”) the wife of Nabal; she became a wife of David after Nabal’s death (1 Samuel 25) She was the mother of Daniel. The Talmud regards her as one of the seven female prophets, the other six being Miriam, Deborah, Hannah, Sarah, Huldah, & Esther.

304 – Deathday of Saint Crispina – a martyr of Africa who suffered during the Diocletian persecution. She was born at Thagara (now an archaeological site in Tunisia near the town Taoura) in the Roman province of Africa. She died by beheading at Theveste, in Numidia.

Crispina belonged to a distinguished family and was a wealthy matron with children. At the time of the persecution she was brought before the proconsul Annius Anullinus; on being ordered to sacrifice to the gods she declared she honoured only one God.

Her head was shaved at the command of the judge, & she was exposed to public mockery, but she remained steadfast in the Faith & was not moved even by the tears of her children. When condemned to death, she thanked God & offered her head with joy for execution.

The Acts of her martyrdom, written not long after the event, form a valuable historical document of the period of the persecution. The day of St. Crispina’s death was observed in the time of Augustine of Hippo; in his sermons Augustine repeatedly mentions her name, as well known in Africa & worthy to be held in the same veneration as the names of Saint Agnes & St. Thecla.

400 – Deathday of Nicetas, a Greek philosopher of the Pythagorean School. He was born in Syracuse. Like his fellow Pythagoreans he believed that the daily movement of permanent stars was caused by the rotation of the Earth around its axis. Copernicus referred to him in De revolutionibus orbium coelestium as having been cited by Cicero as an ancient who also argued that the earth moved.

532 – Feast day of Saint Sabbas the Sanctified, a Cappadocian-Syrian monk, who lived mainly in Palaestina Prima. He was the founder of several monasteries, most notably the one known as Mar Saba. The Saint’s name is derived from Aramaic meaning “old man”

Journeying to Alexandria on military matters, his parents left their five-year-old son in the care of an uncle. When the boy reached eight years of age, he entered the nearby monastery of Bishop Flavian of Antioch. The gifted child quickly learned to read & became an expert on the Holy Scriptures. In vain did his parents urge Sabbas to return to the world & enter into marriage.

When he was seventeen years old he received monastic tonsure. After spending ten years at the monastery of Bishop Flavian, he went to Jerusalem, & from there to the monastery of Saint Euthymius the Great. But Euthymius sent Sabbas to Abba Theoctistus, the head of a nearby monastery with a strict cenobitic rule. Sabbas lived in obedience at this monastery until the age of thirty.

After the death of the Elder Theoctistus, his successor blessed Sabbas to seclude himself in a cave. On Saturdays, however, he left his hermitage & came to the monastery, where he participated in divine services & ate with the brethren. After a certain time Sabbas received permission not to leave his hermitage at all, & he lived in isolation in the cave for five years.

Euthymius attentively directed the life of the young monk, & seeing his spiritual maturity, he began to take him to the wilderness with him. They set out each January 14 & remained there until Palm Sunday. Euthymius called Sabbas a child-elder, & encouraged him to grow in the monastic virtues.

When Euthymius died (c. 473), Sabbas withdrew from the lavra (a cluster of cells or caves for hermits, with a church & a refectory at the center) & moved to a cave near the monastery of St. Gerasimus of Jordan. After several years, disciples began to gather around Sabbas, seeking the monastic life. As the number of monks increased, the Great Lavra sprang up.

Sabbas founded several more monasteries. It is claimed that many miracles took place through the prayers of Sabbas: at the lavra a spring of water welled up, during a time of drought they received abundant rain, & there were also healings of the sick & the possessed.

The relics of St. Sabbas were in the main church of Mar Saba monastery, West Bank. They were taken by Crusaders in the 12th century & remained in Italy until Pope Paul VI returned them to the monastery in 1965 as a gesture of good will towards the Orthodox

1784 – Deathday of Phillis Wheatley, Senegal-born slave, American poet who wrote: His Excellency General Washington –

Celestial choir! enthron’d in realms of light,
Columbia’s scenes of glorious toils I write.
While freedom’s cause her anxious breast alarms,
She flashes dreadful in refulgent arms.
See mother earth her offspring’s fate bemoan,
And nations gaze at scenes before unknown!
See the bright beams of heaven’s revolving light
Involved in sorrows and the veil of night!

The Goddess comes, she moves divinely fair,
Olive and laurel binds Her golden hair:
Wherever shines this native of the skies,
Unnumber’d charms and recent graces rise.

Muse! Bow propitious while my pen relates
How pour her armies through a thousand gates,
As when Eolus heaven’s fair face deforms,
Enwrapp’d in tempest and a night of storms;
Astonish’d ocean feels the wild uproar,
The refluent surges beat the sounding shore;
Or think as leaves in Autumn’s golden reign,
Such, and so many, moves the warrior’s train.
In bright array they seek the work of war,
Where high unfurl’d the ensign waves in air.
Shall I to Washington their praise recite?
Enough thou know’st them in the fields of fight.
Thee, first in peace and honors—we demand
The grace and glory of thy martial band.
Fam’d for thy valour, for thy virtues more,
Hear every tongue thy guardian aid implore!

One century scarce perform’d its destined round,
When Gallic powers Columbia’s fury found;
And so may you, whoever dares disgrace
The land of freedom’s heaven-defended race!
Fix’d are the eyes of nations on the scales,
For in their hopes Columbia’s arm prevails.
Anon Britannia droops the pensive head,
While round increase the rising hills of dead.
Ah! Cruel blindness to Columbia’s state!
Lament thy thirst of boundless power too late.

Proceed, great chief, with virtue on thy side,
Thy ev’ry action let the Goddess guide.
A crown, a mansion, and a throne that shine,
With gold unfading, WASHINGTON! Be thine.

1791 – Deathday of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Austrian composer & musician. Mozart’s final year

1848 – California Gold Rush: In a message to the United States Congress, U.S. President James K. Polk confirms that large amounts of gold had been discovered in California

1931 – Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow was destroyed by an order of Joseph Stalin

1932 – German-born Swiss physicist Albert Einstein is granted an American visa

1941 – World War II: Great Britain declares war on Finland, Hungary & Romania

1943 – World War II: Allied air forces begin attacking Germany’s secret weapons bases in Operation Crossbow

1952 – Great Smog: A cold fog descends upon London, combining with air pollution, killing at least 12,000

1955 – The American Federation of Labor & the Congress of Industrial Organizations merge to form the AFL–CIO

1955 –Rosa Parks lead the Montgomery Bus Boycott

1978 – The Soviet Union signs a “friendship treaty” with Afghanistan

***

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~Let us lift the clouds that guard the secret –
The miracle is happening
Let aspirations rise & speak:
The Peace of Wisdom is coming back
To give birth to Love
Again & yet again Sing Life
Stirring below the surface of skin,
Anoint the pain of mortality, the loss & suffering
The misunderstandings that prick
Consciousness & prod us toward truth…
Bless the body
Where Love in Wisdom is gathering…
~hag

***

Let us take our circle into the secret reaches of our inner sanctum – To Penetrate to the heart of the core of the root – To Peer down through the cracks in the surface, all the way to the center – To Treat the darkness there, as the source, of light…a cleverly disguised treasure, waiting to be discovered, a repository of raw material that will fuel the fires of inspiration…a place where we can go to practice the high art of redemption…

Will we dare to be curious about the amazing sacraments that lie beneath the obvious questions – To open that mysterious door, that leads to the even more mysterious door, that will take us to the most private, yet inclusive, fertile oasis of all…As we aspire to wrestle tenderly with the unripe side of our nature, until it agrees to share its hidden treasures with the rest of us…

Then the immediate future, the eternal now, will bring cathartic revelations leading to spiritual orgasms & ingenious changes in the way we dance our life…

You are potentially a genius, we all are…Perhaps not in the same way that Einstein & Beethoven were, but still: We possess some brilliant capacity or set of skills that is exquisitely unique…We are a masterpiece unlike any other that has ever lived…& you know what?…The precise instructions we need to ripen into that glorious Genie have always been with us…The master plan…Our special mission…Our personal soul code…Our secret song, that says, it’s our birthright to dance daily with the Divine Intelligence…

We have the power & the privilege to ask ‘The Source’ very specific questions about what we need to do NOW in order to activate more of our soul’s code, & to then receive a very specific answer…

So what question will you ask the Divine Intelligence tonight, as you commune in the sacred dance of yourself? …

Breathe in the Q…Breathe out the answer…Open to receive it…Breathe in the Q… As you embody your answer in the healing moment of the now…

The Question is love & love is the answer…

Breathe in the Q…Breathe out the answer…

& as you let yourself hatch & become the answer…Just breathe & Be…

& slowly come, slowly come back into the body of this now…Breathe in the now…& begin to renew your connection to the circle…Bring your awareness back to the unity of your community…Come join the ring…with the milk & manna still lingering on our lips…Mingling with the salt of our skin…Ready to be turned into honey-mead…

We take the marriage feast back to the ring, into the circle that never stops…

Out into the world to feed our lives, with loves healing mystery…Grounded in every cell of our bodies…Connected to the stars in our eyes…Lived with every breath…As we take in the power we’ve raised here to fuel & feed our ‘Balance in Change’…

& so it is…

Xox

~Hazel Archer Ginsberg

***

CALLING ALL CRAFTERS/JEWELRY MAKERS/VENDORS…
The Rudolf Steiner branch is at 4249 N. Lincoln Ave. part of CHICAGO’s famous Lincoln Square area, right next to the Half Acre Brewery, & they are having an extravaganza event from 11am -11pm on Sunday December 11th, which will bring in a lot of foot traffic – it is the perfect opportunity to have a pop-up store at the branch!
On a regular Saturday there are lines of folks that come for the free tour, & they are anticipating that this event will be much much bigger, as they are reveling a new beer & it’s big news (a younger crowd of 30 somethings I would think) they will be lining up around the block by 9am. We could put a sign outside & you could set up tables in the storefront bookstore area.
The branch would want 20 per cent of sales.
What do you say?
Please ask any others that have wares to sell to join in, there’s plenty of space
Interested? Contact me Hazel@ReverseRitual.com

a face of flowers out of season

December 2, 2016Chicago Event, Insight, Poetry, Quote, Remembering, Soul to Soul, Speaking with the Stars~hag

2 December 2016 – Astro-Weather: For the next two evenings, the thickening crescent Moon poses with bright Venus in the southwest at dusk

***

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

HEALING WILL COME TO OUR AGE when the thoughts and ideas that are applied to social conditions and political life are in living contact with spiritual reality. ~Rudolf Steiner

Deathday of Saint Aurelia of Strasbourg, a 4th-century saint. According to legend, Aurelia accompanied Saint Ursula & the eleven thousand virgins from Roman Britain to Cologne, where they were favorably received by Aquilin, bishop of the place. From Cologne they traveled to Basel. From Basel the travelers descended the Rhine to Strasbourg where St Aurelia succumbed to a violent fever, dying after a few days. Three virgins were left to care for her. She is particularly invoked against fevers in the church that bears her name. Her three companions lived many years in the same place & were buried there. Some centuries later their tomb was opened & their bodies were found completely intact, marked with titles bearing their names.

1469 – Deathday of Piero di Cosimo de’ Medici, Italian banker & politician

1804 – At Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, Napoleon Bonaparte crowns himself Emperor of the French

1814 – Deathday of Marquis de Sade

1823 – Monroe Doctrine: In a State of the Union message, U.S. President James Monroe proclaims American neutrality in future European conflicts, & warns European powers not to interfere in the Americas.

The intent and impact of the Monroe Doctrine persisted with only minor variations for more than a century. Its stated objective was to ‘free’ the newly independent colonies of Latin America from European intervention & avoid situations which could make the New World a battleground for the Old World powers, so that the U.S. could exert its own influence undisturbed.

1845 – Manifest destiny: In a State of the Union message, U.S. President James K. Polk proposes that the United States should aggressively expand into the West

“Manifest Destiny” was a belief that American settlers were destined to expand across North America. There are three basic themes to manifest destiny:

*The special virtues of the American people and their institutions

*The mission of the United States to redeem and remake the west in the image of agrarian America

*An irresistible destiny to accomplish this essential duty

Historians have emphasized that “manifest destiny” was a contested concept—many prominent Americans (such as Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, & most Whigs) rejected it. Historian Daniel Walker Howe writes, “American imperialism did not represent an American consensus; it provoked bitter dissent within the national polity…Whigs saw America’s moral mission as one of democratic example rather than one of conquest.”

It never became a national priority. By 1843 John Quincy Adams, originally a major supporter of the concept underlying manifest destiny, had changed his mind & repudiated expansionism because it meant the expansion of slavery in Texas.

From the outset Manifest Destiny—vast in program, in its sense of continentalism—was slight in support. It lacked national, sectional, or party following commensurate with its magnitude. The reason was it did not reflect the national spirit (Columbia)

Photo by Dorothea Lange

1930 – Great Depression: In a State of the Union message, U.S. President Herbert Hoover proposes a $150 million public works program to help generate jobs & stimulate the economy

1942 – World War II: During the Manhattan Project, a team led by Enrico Fermi initiates the first artificial self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction

1943 – World War II: A Luftwaffe bombing raid on the harbor of Bari, Italy, sinks numerous cargo & transport ships, including the American SS John Harvey, which is carrying a stockpile of World War I-era mustard gas

1956 – The Granma reaches the shores of Cuba’s Oriente Province. Fidel Castro, Che Guevara & 80 other members of the 26th of July Movement disembark to initiate the Cuban Revolution

1961 – In a nationally broadcast speech, Cuban leader Fidel Castro declares that he is a Marxist–Leninist & that Cuba is going to adopt Communism.

1962 – Vietnam War: After a trip to Vietnam at the request of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield becomes the first American official to comment adversely on the war’s progress

1970 – The United States Environmental Protection Agency begins operations

1971 – Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Fujairah, Sharjah, Dubai, & Umm al-Quwain form the United Arab Emirates

1976 – Fidel Castro becomes President of Cuba, replacing Osvaldo Dorticós Torrado

1980 – Salvadoran Civil War: Four American missionaries, Maryknoll Sisters Maura Clarke, Ita Ford, Ursuline Dorothy Kazel, & lay missionary Jean Donovan, are raped & murdered by a death squad

1982 – At the University of Utah, Barney Clark becomes the first person to receive a permanent artificial heart

1988 – Benazir Bhutto is sworn in as Prime Minister of Pakistan, becoming the first woman to head the government of an Islam-dominated state

1991 – Canada & Poland become the first nations to recognize the independence of Ukraine from the Soviet Union

2001 – Enron files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy

2015 – San Bernardino attack: Syed Rizwan Farook & Tashfeen Malik kill 14 people & wound 22

***

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~I come
& go out the same door
A portal ever undulating
To greet the passage of Time
To trace the footfall
Of a hidden god
To stand in space
When the rest disappears
In a face of flowers out of season…
No day passes
When we are not
Part of each other
~hag

***

I’ve been told that the Third Lunar Node, occurring around the age of 56, often brings about a healing crisis. Encountering serious illness & death becomes more frequent. Many people at this time become ill with cancer, have a heart attack, or suffer the threatening climax of a chronic illness? This was the age my mother Betty Mae died, the age I am now. What a perspective to view recent lower-back issues, social upheavals, new career orientations, & the current viral pneumonia, arising in this light.

The thought of death & dying comes more strongly into consciousness & serves to sharpen my gaze into the spiritual world. I become more contemplative. What will come after death for me? Where do I come from? Where am I going? What deeper meaning does my life have?

Bam…All at once, long nagging habits, life questions, daily activities, routines, & social interactions, suddenly come forward in my consciousness, begging for clarity, purification or retribution. Anxiety stirs as I feel my waning physical strength preventing me from fulfilling duties. I take stock of my Self. The longing to leave something lasting & significant to the world pierces. I examine what is important, what is real, what is essential? & ask: How can I be a more loving human being? How can I forgive myself, & the other? How can I put the Being of Anthroposophia to work in my every thought, word & deed? How can I live in the truth of ‘Christ in me’?

At the second lunar node my question was: In what social connections can I best serve? Now a further spiritual element arises – I ask: Who shares my common interests & goals? Friendships & social relationships are examined & weighed according to their spiritual connectivity & lasting value. Spiritual questions become the only focus. I’m done with small talk. I strive to experience the reality & truth of the spiritual world. I seek a Spiritual Home, where there is support & healthy discussion. And yet I feel so alone, unworthy. Who are my peers, my partners & co-creators? Why do I clash & bump up against my contemporaries? Why can’t I heal this moon-karma? Where are my mentors?

They say: When the student is ready…sigh…
I read that Goethe reached his third lunar node in 1805. He became ill in the first months of that year, plagued by kidney colic. His friend Schiller also became ill during those months. On May 1st, Goethe visited him for the last time, & on May 9th Schiller died. Three weeks later Goethe wrote :

“What more can a person have from life
Than God-Nature revealing itself
How it allows the solid to trickle away to spirit
How it solidly preserves that created by spirit.”

Hey, ‘Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger’ right?

Xox

~Hazel Archer Ginsberg

***

TONIGHT

FLOWERS AND LANDSCAPES
New Works by
Lisa Villa Moser

Opening Reception:
Friday December 2nd, 2016
5 pm – 8 pm

Closing Reception
Sunday December 18th, 2016
12-3 pm

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

Unbound

November 11, 2016Autumn, Chicago Event, Poetry, Quote, Remembering, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Soul to Soul, Speaking with the Stars~hag

11/11/16 – Astro-weather: Although the calendar says November, the Summer Triangle of bright stars remains prominent during the early evening hours. Look nearly overhead after darkness falls & you’ll spot Deneb, a conspicuous point of light despite being the faintest of the three luminaries. Brighter Vega lies west of Deneb & intermediate Altair appears to their south

Saturn is falling ever farther away to the lower right of Venus at dusk. Far to Venus’s upper left, Mars is drawing closer to it — very gradually.

Orion is clearing the eastern horizon by about 7pm now. High above Orion shines orange Aldebaran. Above Aldebaran is the little Pleiades cluster, the size of your fingertip at arm’s length. Far left of the Pleiades is bright Capella

***

“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”. Karmic Relationships, Volume IV: Lecture III

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Feast Day of Martin of Tours. Each 11/11 the younger children have a Lantern Walk to celebrate Martinmas, a festival of inner light in the outer darkness of the approaching winter. St Martin was a soldier in Rome in the 4th century. Legend says that one wintry night he met a poor beggar, half-naked & freezing. Martin removed the heavy military cloak from his shoulders &, drawing his sword, cut it in two, giving half to the beggar. That night, Christ appeared to Martin in a dream, wrapped in the same piece of cloak Martin had given the beggar, & said: “Martin has covered me with this garment.”

Martin became the patron saint of beggars, drunks & outcasts, dedicating his life to assisting pariahs. As we journey into the darkest time of the year, it is increasingly important for each of us to kindle warmth & light within our hearts, which becomes a beacon of light to the world. Martin’s cloak can remind us to share with those in need.

The gently glowing lanterns of Martinmas will give way to the candles of the advent spiral as we draw nearer to the Solstice, showing how our inner light must shine ever brighter against the cold. As nature sleeps, we must be wakeful!

Celebrating Martinmas serves as a reminder that each of us has a divine spark that we must ferry out into the world & share with others. The children hear the story of St. Martin, sing songs &, as darkness falls, venture out into the night with their lanterns walking along a path lit with glowing luminaries, carefully carrying their lanterns in a mood of quiet reverence. This symbolic act brings home the deeper truth, in the words of Siddhartha Gautama, the founder of Buddhism (563-483 B.C.): “There isn’t enough darkness in all the world to snuff out the light of one little candle.”

1493 – Birthday of Paracelsus, a Swiss Germanphilosopher, physician, botanist, astrologer, & general occultist. He is credited as the founder of toxicology. He is also a famous revolutionary for utilizing observations of nature, rather than referring to ancient texts, something of radical defiance during his time. Modern psychology often also credits him for being the first to note that some diseases are rooted in psychological conditions

1821 – Birthday of Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Russian philosopher & author

1887 – August Spies, Albert Parsons, Adolph Fischer & George Engel are executed as a result of the Haymarket affair. It began Tuesday May 4, 1886, as a peaceful rally in support of workers striking for an eight-hour day & in reaction to the killing of several workers the previous day by the police. An unknown person threw a dynamite bomb at police as they acted to disperse the public meeting. The bomb blast & ensuing gunfire resulted in the deaths of seven police officers & at least four civilians; scores of others were wounded.

The Haymarket affair is generally considered significant as the origin of international May Day observances for workers. The site of the incident was designated a Chicago Landmark in 1992, & a public sculpture was dedicated there in 2004.

1904 – Birthday of Alger Hiss, American lawyer & spy

1922 – birthday of Kurt Vonnegut

1992 – The General Synod of the Church of England votes to allow women to become priests

2000 – Kaprun disaster: One hundred fifty-five skiers & snowboarders die when a cable car catches fire in an alpine tunnel in Kaprun, Austria

2012 – A strong earthquake with the magnitude 6.8 hits northern Burma, killing at least 2226 people

***

My POD (Poem Of the Day)

~sharpening my pointy chin…
unbound
I am…
Together we will walk the shadowland…
From my hands the horn of plenty flows freely
The ghosts are fed, the unborn, ready…
I remind them
The Earth is an apple
Ripening in space…
Blue starlight filters thru the outstretched wings of a bird, like wind in the fire,
As our journey continues deeper into the dark
Together we carry the unending rhythm of the light…
~hag

***

Saturday 12 November 2016 Closing event at the Rudolf Steiner Branch 4249 N. Lincoln Ave. Chicago

Calaj.com Artists Matthew Schaefer and Janet Trierweiler Schaefer present:

“Silent Lecture” Art Exhibit & Discussion

3pm – 8pm Paintings on view (in the un-rented space next to the Branch)

6:30pm – Artist Discussion – topics may include:

Setting limits to hold the limitless.

Human systems at work.

The fallible element, how it works in art.

The steps or ritual.

The visible/invisible origin.

Finding the spiritual in art through a primitive gesture.

A cognitive transformation, instinct to intuition.

Snacks to Share Encouraged

For more info. Contact Hazel Archer Ginsberg

Re-Building the Temple of Liberty

November 8, 2016Autumn, Chicago Event, Festival, Insight, Poetry, Quote, Remembering, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Soul to Soul, Speaking with the Stars~hag

Phillis Wheatley arrived in America, from Africa, at the tender age of 7 years old, in chains, to become the slave of Boston’s John Wheatley. She had an amazing gift for poetry & a deep karmic tie with George Washington. Thomas Paine published her poem “To His Excellency, General Washington” in the Pennsylvania Gazette in 1776:
“Celestial choir! enthron’d in realms of light,
Columbia’s scenes of glorious toils I write.
While freedom’s cause her anxious breast alarms,
She flashes dreadful in refulgent arms.
See mother earth her offspring’s fate bemoan,
And nations gaze at scenes before unknown!
See the bright beams of heaven’s revolving light
Involved in sorrows and veil of night!
The goddess comes, she moves divinely fair,
Olive and laurel bind her golden hair:
Wherever shines this native of the skies,
Unnumber’d charms and recent graces rise.
Fix’d are the eyes of nations on the scales,
For in their hopes Columbia’s arm prevails”.

And did you know that “Hail Columbia”, written in 1798, was our National Anthem, before it was changed to “The Star-Spangled Banner” in 1931!?!
“Hail, Columbia, happy land,
Hail, ye heroes, heav’n born band,

O, Columbia! the gem of the ocean,
The home of the brave and the free,
The shrine of each patriot’s devotion,
A world offers homage to thee.
Thy mandates make heroes assemblev When Liberty’s form stands in view;
Thy banners make tyranny tremble
When borne by the Red, White and Blue!”

The name of our Capital is Washington – the District of Columbia. The fresco covering the dome is called “The Apotheosis of Washington”, & it shows our 1st president working with Columbia, encircled by the spirits of the 13 colonies, blessing him from the heavens.

In David Ovason’s book, The Secret Architecture of our Nation’s Capital, The District of Columbia & its Federal City were arranged, so that the constellation of Virgo, with its goddess symbolism, dominates the structure. The right triangle of the first magnitude stars that contains the constellation Virgo, Arcturus, Regulus & Spica, can be found in the plan of the Federal city marked by the location of the Capital, the White House & the Washington Monument. The consecration ceremonies for these sites, done by leaders in Freemasonry, all include prominent astrological connections to Virgo…

Benjamin Franklin, a Freemason, like many of the founding fathers, also admired & worked with the Iroquois traditions, adapting their ideas into the Albany Plan & the Articles of Confederation.

The Sons of Liberty took their name from the guiding spirit of this land. And as I showed in yesterday’s post, Columbia in her guise as Liberty, is often portrayed as an Indian Princess. Walt Whitman perpetuated that vision in his poem, As I Sat Alone by Blue Ontario’s Shores

“AS I sat alone, by blue Ontario’s shore, As I mused of these mighty days, and of peace return’d, and the dead that return no more, A Phantom, gigantic, superb, with stern visage, accosted me; Chant me the poem, it said, that comes from the soul of America—chant me the carol of victory; And strike up the marches of Libertad—marches more powerful yet; and sing me before you go, the song of the throes of Democracy. (Democracy—the destin’d conqueror—yet treacherous lip-smiles everywhere, And Death and infidelity at every step.)”

Whitman also saw the connection with Calliope & wrote about it in “Song of the Exposition”:
“She comes! this famous Female—as was indeed to be expected;
(For who, so-ever youthful, ’cute and handsome, would wish to stay in mansions such as those, When offer’d quarters with all the modern improvements,
With all the fun that ’s going—and all the best society?)

She comes! I hear the rustling of her gown;
I scent the odor of her breath’s delicious fragrance;
I mark her step divine—her curious eyes a-turning, rolling,
Upon this very scene.

The Dame of Dames! can I believe, then,
Those ancient temples classic, and castles strong and feudalistic,
could none of them restrain her?
Nor shades of Virgil and Dante—nor myriad memories, poems, old associations, magnetize and hold on to her?
But that she ’s left them all—and here?

Yes, if you will allow me to say so,
I, my friends, if you do not, can plainly see Her,
The same Undying Soul of Earth’s, activity’s, beauty’s, heroism’s Expression,
Out from her evolutions hither come—submerged the strata of her former themes,
Hidden and cover’d by to-day’s—foundation of to-day’s;
Ended, deceas’d, through time, her voice by Castaly’s fountain;
Silent through time the broken-lipp’d Sphynx in Egypt—silent those century-baffling tombs;
Closed for aye the epics of Asia’s, Europe’s helmeted warriors;
Calliope’s call for ever closed—Clio, Melpomene, Thalia closed and dead;
Seal’d the stately rhythmus of Una and Oriana—ended the quest of the Holy Graal;
Jerusalem a handful of ashes blown by the wind—extinct;
The Crusaders’ streams of shadowy, midnight troops, sped with the sunrise;
Amadis, Tancred, utterly gone—Charlemagne, Roland, Oliver gone,
Palmerin, ogre, departed—vanish’d the turrets that Usk reflected,
Arthur vanish’d with all his knights—Merlin and Lancelot and Galahad—all gone—dissolv’d utterly, like an exhalation;
Pass’d! pass’d! for us, for ever pass’d! that once so mighty World—now void, inanimate, phantom World!”

The eagle was also a symbol used by the Founding Fathers (Franklin wanted the national bird to be the humble turkey, which of course later became the symbol for the 1st Thanksgiving, uniting immigrants with those who were native to this land). The Eagle was also an emblem for ancient Rome, & it appeared with Columbia in Her aspect as Liberty, often clad in Athena’s Armor, protectress of the Republic, defender against tyranny & strife.

In the book “A Sanctuary for the Rights of Mankind”, Rick Spaulding & Maurice York, speculate that many of the Founding Fathers had earlier incarnations together in ancient Rome. And Chapter 8 is compelling in its description of “The Temple of Liberty” as being a manifestation of the Freemasonic tradition.

Abraham Lincoln, says in his Perpetuation of our Political Institutions “They (the founding Fathers) were the pillars of the Temple of Liberty and now, that they have crumbled away, that temple must fall, unless we, their descendants, supply their places with other pillars, hewn from the solid quarry of sober reason. Passion has helped us; but can do so no more. It will in future be our enemy. Reason, cold, calculating, unimpassioned reason, must furnish all the materials for our future support and defence.–Let those materials be moulded into general intelligence, sound morality, and in particular, a reverence for the constitution and laws: and, that we improved to the last; that we remained free to the last; that we revered his name to the last; that, during his long sleep, we permitted no hostile foot to pass over or desecrate his resting place; shall be that which to learn the last trump shall awaken our WASHINGTON.

Upon these let the proud fabric of freedom rest, as the rock of its basis; and as truly as has been said of the only greater institution, “the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”

Will we, as individuals, & as a people, take up this idea of self-development, in freedom? Like Percival we are called to search within for the grail castle, & re-build the Temple of Liberty.

Blessings on We the People, on this election day 2016

~Hazel Archer Ginsberg

***

Join us TONIGHT for our Annual All Souls Festival

Especially scheduled this year on Election Night Tuesday 8 November 2016

at the Rudolf Steiner Branch 4249 N. Lincoln Ave, Chicago IL.

Potluck 6pm

7pm Welcome with a Steiner verse

May love of hearts reach out to love of souls
May warmth of love ray out to Spirit-light
Even so would we draw near to you
Thinking with you Thoughts of Spirit
Feeling in you the Love of Worlds
Consciously at one with you
Willing in silent being.

Carolyn Arnett will read the names of the dead

Deborah Rogers will inscribe them on the board

All are invited to share the names of their beloved ones who have died this year

Then we will open it up for everyone to speak the names of those whose inspiration we want to call in: Like Rudolf Steiner & the Founding Mothers & Fathers…ETC…

Healing prayers for the Native Americans, & What of our Folk-Spirit Columbia?

After the chalice is full with the blessings of all these beloved spiritual beings, we will do the Hallelujah in eurythmy

We will then begin the Song Circle with Nancy Melvin, singing together old favorites like “This Land is Your Land”, “America the Beautiful”, “If I had a Hammer”…feel free to bring suggestions…

We will close with the Verse for the Michaelic Age

We must eradicate from the soul all fear and terror
Of what approaches us from the future.

We must acquire serenity in all feelings and sensations
About the future.

We must look forward with absolute equanimity
To whatever may come.

And we must think only that whatever comes
Is given to us by a cosmic guidance full of wisdom.

It is part of what we must learn in this age, namely,
To live without any security in material existence
And to live with pure trust in the ever-present help
of the spiritual world.

Truly, nothing else will do if our courage is not to fail us.

For this let us seek awakening
To the reality of the spirit
From within ourselves,
Every morning and every evening. ~Rudolf Steiner

Contact Deborah Rogers with the names of your beloved ones who have died this year, to be read in the circle beewisdom33@yahoo.com

Hail Columbia

November 7, 2016Autumn, Chicago Event, Festival, Insight, Poetry, Quote, Remembering, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Soul to Soul, Speaking with the Stars~hag

Columbia is a Roman name, from the word “Columba” meaning “Dove of Peace”

“Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
‘ With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
~These words, written by Emma Lazarus, are engraved inside the statue of Columbia Liberty.

Whether you think of her as an archetype, a Folk-Spirit, or an ancient goddess with a new name, Columbia is the personified ideals of liberty & freedom in America. She represents virtues that the best of humanity unselfishly strive toward.

But have we as a people lost sight of these values? Has she left us? Have we deserted her?

Today, as the Sun reaches 15 degrees Scorpio, the actual Cross-Quarter Day between Autumn Equinox & the Winter Solstice, I honor Her & pray that She blesses us with Her gifts. I ask Her to guide us during this election, since our nation’s identity & ethics are muddled in materialism & We the People stand once more at a crossroads, facing difficult times. How I wish Her statue was still behind the Speaker’s chair in the House of Representatives, having Columbia as a guide for our national leaders certainly couldn’t hurt!

We need the virtues She represents, now more than ever. Venerating Columbia calls us to continue to strive towards our highest ideals.

Personifying values in the form of a goddess has a long history; Rome recognized Libertas, goddess of liberty, among others. Our own Statue of Liberty, actually entitled Liberty Enlightening the World, is directly modeled on classical depictions of Libertas.

As people began to break away from older models of government & the modern nation-state developed, female personifications of countries emerged: the UK was represented as Brittannia, France as Marianne, & Switzerland as Helvetia.

The Statue of Freedom atop the dome of the Capitol combines symbols of Liberty & Columbia: she wears the gown of a Native American, & a helmet topped with the 5 pointed star & the eagle. Unifying these images atop the legislative heart of American government, is a statement that these ideals are the pinnacle of what it means to be American.

America as goddess, personifying the emerging nation of the United States was founded before the Revolutionary War. She was represented in simple Native American garb, standing in contrast to the Old World’s overly grand caricature. In a 1774 engraving, Paul Revere uses an Indian woman to depict America being subjugated by British ministers, who are forcing her to drink vile tea for her own good (a disturbing image of the rape of America)

Another patriot leader, Thomas Paine, included Her in his poem, the “Liberty Tree,” referring to Her as “The Goddess of Liberty.”

“In a chariot of light, form the regions of the day,
The Goddess of Liberty came,
Ten thousand celestials directed her way,
And hither conducted the dame.
A fair budding branch from the gardens above,
Where millions with millions agree,
She brought in her hand as a pledge of her love,
And the plant she named Liberty Tree.

The celestial exotic stuck deep in the ground,
Like a native it flourished and bore;
The fame of its fruit drew the nations around,
To seek out this peaceable shore.
Unmindful of names or distinctions they came,
For freemen like brothers agree;
With one spirit endued, they one friendship pursued,
And their temple was Liberty Tree.

Beneath this fair tree, like the patriarchs of old,
Their bread in contentment they ate,
Unvexed with the troubles of silver or gold,
The cares of the grand and the great.

But hear, O ye swains (a tale most profane),
How all the tyrannical powers,
Kings, Commons and Lords, are uniting amain
To cut down this guardian of ours.
From the East to the West blow the trumpet to arms,
Through the land let the sound of it flee;
Let the far and the near all unite with a cheer,
In defense of our Liberty Tree”.

As the USA became a nation, Lady Liberty became the official symbol of some of its newly formed states. In addition, Lady Liberty images appeared on coins, paintings, stamps, & in sculptures throughout the land.

The Statue of the Republic, now in Jackson Park, Chicago, formally part of the Colombian Exhibition of 1893.

The most famous depictions of the American Freedom Goddess, the Statue of Liberty, (Liberty Enlightening the World), was a gift from France to the United States in honor of America’s 100th birthday, designed by French Freemason & sculptor Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi with the assistance of engineer Alexandre Gustave Eiffel. The head of Lady Liberty’s statue wears a crown with solar rays, similar to the crown on the Colossus of Rhodes, a magnificent monument to the Sun God Helios that once stood astride a Greek harbor & was considered one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. The seven rays on Liberty’s crown represent the seven continents & seven seas. The torch Liberty holds in Her right upstretched hand is the Flame of Freedom, & underneath Her feet are broken chains representing overcoming tyranny & enslavement. The tablet Liberty holds in Her left hand is inscribed with July 4, the date of the signing of the Declaration of Independence & the birth of the USA as a nation. Her flowing gown is similar in design to depictions of Libertas in ancient Rome.

“Liberty relies upon itself, invites no one, promises nothing, sits in calmness and light, is positive and composed, and knows no discouragement.” ~From Walt Whitman‘s Preface to Leaves of Grass (1855)

Doesn’t this description sound a lot like qualities held by our Time-Spirit Michael?

What would it be like to rise in our thinking to meet Columbia? To bring Her qualities to bare once again in our great land?

“O beautiful for spacious skies, For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties, Above the fruited plain!
America! America! God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood, From sea to shining sea!

O beautiful for pilgrim feet,Whose stern, impassioned stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat, Across the wilderness!
America! America! God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control, Thy liberty in law!”

~”America the Beautiful” lyrics by Katharine Lee Bates, music composed by church organist & choirmaster Samuel A. Ward at Grace Episcopal Church in Newark

“…As the United States election occurs on November 8th, we are called upon to direct the clear shining of Michael’s thoughts and the transforming Christ will into the unconscious realm of the dragon where Venus now meets the poison sting of Scorpion”. Read more from the Astrosophy Center

The last segment of the Michael imagination can be a meditative force for the coming days:

Ye, the disciples of spirit knowledge,
Take Michael’s wisdom beckoning,
Take the Word of Love of the Will of Worlds
Into your soul’s aspiring, actively!
~Rudolf Steiner

Join us for our Annual All Souls Festival

Especially scheduled this year on Election Night Tuesday 8 November 2016

Potluck 6 pm, Festival 7 pm – 9 pm

Get away from the media frenzy- As We Create a Healing Sanctuary thru Story & SongTo Honor Our Dearly Departed working with us from the Spiritual World

“Feel how we gaze lovingly into heights that now call you to other work.
May your power reach out from spirit-realms to the friends you left behind.

Hear our soul’s request sent to you in confidence;
We need here, for our earthly work, strong power from spirit lands-
We thank our friends now dead for this.

A hope that makes us happy, a loss that pains us deeply:
Let us hope that you light our lives, far-and-near, un-lost,
A soul-star in the spiritual firmament.” ~Rudolf Steiner

Nancy Melvin will lead us in a song-circle.

Engage with Columbia the Folk-Spirit of America, & The Founding Mothers & Fathers of our country, as well as the Native Americans who were here before us with Hazel Archer Ginsberg

Contact Deborah Rogers with the names of your beloved ones who have died this year, to be read in the circle beewisdom33@yahoo.com

***

Saturday 12 November 2016 Closing event

Calaj.com Artists Matthew Schaefer and Janet Trierweiler Schaefer present:

“Silent Lecture” Art Exhibit & Discussion

3pm – 8pm Paintings on view (in the un-rented space next to the Branch)

6:30pm – Artist Discussion – topics may include:

Setting limits to hold the limitless.

Human systems at work.

The fallible element, how it works in art.

The steps or ritual.

The visible/invisible origin.

Finding the spiritual in art through a primitive gesture.

A cognitive transformation, instinct to intuition.

Snacks to Share Encouraged

For more info. Contact Hazel Archer Ginsberg

Cognitive Ritual

~Confessions of a Modern Rosicrucian

Category Archives: Soul to Soul

Love in Wisdom is Gathering

a face of flowers out of season

Unbound

Re-Building the Temple of Liberty

Hail Columbia

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