Category Archives: Speaking with the Stars

Convergence

January 25, 2022Central Regional Council, History, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Speaking with the Stars~hag

POD (Poem Of the Day)

Open the I to the Sky
Let the clouds reveal their secrets
Speak your heart to the Sun
In the light of the New Damascus
That the Comforter Come, again & yet again –
Vibrating in the Etherized Blood of Right-Mindfulness
In Wisdom’s Word beckoning.
~hag

Today, 25 January is called the Conversion of St. Paul – The Feast Day when Saul became Paul. It is also the anniversary 111 years ago, when Rudolf Steiner first spoke about what he called: The Event of Christ’s Appearance in the Etheric World inspired by Maitreya & a Cardinal Grand Cross that was occurring at that time!

“For we have now reached the point of time when the Etheric Christ enters into the life of the Earth and will become visible — at first to a small number of individuals through a form of natural clairvoyance. Then in the course of the next three thousand years, He will become visible to greater and greater numbers of people. This will inevitably come to pass in the natural course of development. That it will come to pass is as true as were the achievements of electricity in the nineteenth century. A number of individuals will see the Etheric Christ and will themselves experience the event that took place at Damascus. But this will depend upon such men learning to be alert to the moment when Christ draws near to them. In only a few decades from now it will happen, particularly to those who are young — already preparation is being made for this — that some individual here or there has certain experiences. If he has sharpened his vision through having assimilated Anthroposophy, he may become aware that suddenly someone has come near to help him, to make him alert to this or that. The truth is that Christ has come to him, although he believes that what he saw is a physical man. He will come to realise that what he saw was a super-sensible being, because it immediately vanishes. Many a human being will have this experience when sitting silent in his room, heavy-hearted and oppressed, not knowing which way to turn. The door will open, and the etheric Christ will appear and speak words of consolation to him. The Christ will become a living Comforter to men. However strange it may as yet seem, it is true nevertheless that many a time when people — even in considerable numbers — are sitting together, not knowing what to do, and waiting, they will see the Etheric Christ. He will Himself be there, will confer with them, will make His voice heard in such gatherings. These times are approaching, and the positive, constructive element now described will take real effect in the evolution of mankind. ” ~Rudolf Steiner, The Etherisation of the Blood, Basel 1911

25 January 2022 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Sirius twinkles brightly after dinnertime below Orion in the southeast. Around 7 pm, Sirius shines below fiery Betelgeuse in Orion’s shoulder.

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

The Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul on the road to Damascus. Before this, he was known as Saul, “a Pharisee of Pharisees”, who “intensely persecuted” the followers of Jesus.

The Acts of the Apostles says that Paul was on his way from Jerusalem to Syrian Damascus with a mandate issued by the High Priest to seek out & arrest followers of Jesus, with the intention of returning them to Jerusalem as prisoners for questioning & possible execution. The journey is interrupted when Paul sees a blinding light, & communicates directly with a divine voice.

Acts 9 tells the story as a third-person narrative: As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked. “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.” The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone. Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus. For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything. Acts 9:3–9, NIV

The account continues with a description of Ananias of Damascus receiving a divine revelation instructing him to visit Saul at the house of Juda on the Street Called Straight & there lay hands on him to restore his sight. Ananias is initially reluctant, having heard about Saul’s persecution, but obeys the divine command: Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord—Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here—has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized, and after taking some food, he regained his strength. Acts 9:13–19, NIV

Paul on trial before Agrippa (Acts 26), as pictured by Nikolai Bodarevsky, 1875.

Acts’ second telling of Paul’s conversion occurs in a speech Paul gives when he is arrested in Jerusalem.[Acts 22:6-21] Paul addresses the crowd & tells them of his conversion, with a description essentially the same as that in Acts 9.

Acts’ third discussion of Paul’s conversion occurs when Paul addresses King Agrippa, defending himself against the accusations of antinomianism that have been made against him. [Acts 26:12-18] This account is more brief than the others. The speech here is again tailored for its audience, emphasizing what a Roman ruler would understand: the need to obey a heavenly vision,[Acts 26:19] & reassuring Agrippa that Christians were not a secret society.

The conversion of Paul, in spite of his attempts to completely eradicate Christianity, is seen as evidence of the power of Divine Grace: “no fall is so deep that grace cannot descend to it” & “no height so lofty that grace cannot lift the sinner to it.” It also demonstrates “God’s power to use everything, even the hostile persecutor, to achieve the divine purpose.”

The transforming effect of Paul’s conversion influenced the clear antithesis he saw “between righteousness based on the law,” i.e. the letter of the law, which he had sought in his former life; & “righteousness based on the death of Christ,” which he describes, for example, in the Epistle to the Galatians.

Interesting that in rural England, the feast day celebrated on 25 January, functioned much like Groundhog Day does in our modern-day US. With prophecies ranged from fine days predicting good harvests, to clouds & mists signifying pestilence & war in the coming months.

1366 – Deathday of Henry Suso, a German Dominican friar & mystic, the most popular r writer of the 14^th century. He is also notable for defending Meister Eckhart’s legacy after Eckhart was condemned for heresy. Suso also studied philosophy in Strasbourg, where he would have come into contact with Meister Eckhart, & Johannes Tauler, both celebrated mystics.

Suso was esteemed as a preacher, in the cities of Swabia, Switzerland, Alsace, & the Netherlands, speaking with individuals of all classes who were drawn to him by his attractive personality, & to whom he became a personal director in the spiritual life.

Suso was reported to have established among the Friends of God a society which he called the Brotherhood of the Eternal Wisdom. The so-called Rule of the Brotherhood of the Eternal Wisdom is a free translation of a chapter of his Horologium Sapientiae, which did not make its appearance until the 15^th century. Suso was beatified in 1831 by Pope Gregory XVI.

1586 – Deathday of Lucas Cranach the Younger, German painter.

1742 – Deathday of Edmond Halley, English astronomer, geophysicist, mathematician, meteorologist, & physicist. He was the second Astronomer Royal in Britain.

From an observatory he constructed on Saint Helena, Halley recorded a transit of Mercury across the Sun. He realized a similar transit of Venus could be used to determine the size of the Solar System. He also used his observations to expand contemporary star maps. He aided in proving Isaac Newton‘s laws of motion, & funded the publication of Newton’s influential Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica. From his September 1682 observations, he used the laws of motion to compute the periodicity of Halley’s Comet in his 1705 Synopsis of the Astronomy of Comets. It was named after him upon its predicted return in 1758, which he did not live to see.

Beginning in 1698, he made sailing expeditions & made observations on the conditions of terrestrial magnetism. In 1718, he discovered the proper motion of the “fixed” stars.

1881 – Thomas Edison & Alexander Graham Bell form the Oriental Telephone Company.

1882 – Birthday of Virginia Woolf, English novelist, essayist, short story writer, & critic

1890 – Nellie Bly completes her round-the-world journey in 72 days.

1915 – Alexander Graham Bell inaugurates U.S. transcontinental telephone service, speaking from New York to Thomas Watson in San Francisco.

1918 – The Ukrainian People’s Republic declares independence from Bolshevik Russia.

1999 – A 6.0 Richter scale earthquake hits western Colombia killing at least 1,000.

2011 – The first wave of the Egyptian revolution begins throughout the country, marked by street demonstrations, rallies, acts of civil disobedience, riots, labor strikes, & violent clashes.

“Out of the substance of soul and spirit, human beings have to fashion the tools with which to plough a way, the soul-way leading to the castle of the Grail, to the mystery of the Grail, to the mystery of bread and blood, to the fulfilment of the words ‘This do in remembrance of me’. This is, truly, in remembrance of the mighty event of Golgotha, if the symbol of the bread — of what, in other words, develops from the earth through the synthesis of cosmic forces — is understood. It is done in full remembrance if we understand once again how to grasp the world through a spiritualized cosmology and astronomy, and if we learn to comprehend the human being in terms of his essence: the element where the spiritual directly enters him — the mystery of the blood. The path that leads to the Holy Grail must be found through inner work in human souls. This is the task of cognition and the social task.”~Rudolf Steiner,
The Mysteries of the Holy Grail, Chapter 8, “The Lapse into Matter”, and Chapter 9,
“Piercing the Thicket”, excerpts from Steiner’s lectures given at Dornach on 16 & 17 April 1921 …
focus of the February 2 meeting.

Chapters 7, 8 & 9 in the book can be found online at the CRC’s website by clicking this link
A transcript of the 16 April, 1921 lecture can be found on the RS Archive by clicking this link
A transcript of the 17 April, 1921 lecture can be found on the RS Archive by clicking this link

The Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society in America invites you to join our ongoing study conversation. The study has been divided among two volunteers who will summarize their section to rebuild it as a foundation for our conversation. Please familiarize yourself with the lecture if possible so you will feel comfortable sharing your reflections and thoughts with the group.This collection of lectures has been republished by Rudolf Steiner Press under the title: “The Mysteries of the Holy Grail — from Arthur and Parzival to Modern Initiation.” The book was compiled and edited by Matthew Barton, published by Rudolf Steiner Press in 2010.

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Agenda for this meeting (CST)

7:15 Welcome and Introductions
7:18 Verse
7:25 Study led by volunteers
Note: CRC team will ID volunteers
Michael – Chapter 8
Camille – Chapter 9
7:50 Conversation
8:25 ID volunteers for next meeting
8:28 Close with verse
There is a knighthood of the 21st century
whose riders do not ride through the darkness of physical forests as of old,
but through the forest of darkened minds.
They are armed with a spiritual armor and an inner sun makes them radiant.
Out of them shines healing, healing that flows from the knowledge of the human being
as a spiritual being. They must create inner order, inner justice, peace and conviction in the darkness
of our time.
~Karl Konig

Bring Love into Willing

January 16, 2022Calendar of the Soul, Celestial Event, History, Remembering, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Speaking with the Stars~hag

~Today I will
Seize darkness by its limbs & shake it –
So that the souls of the good
Ancient swallowed gods
Fall out of the belly of obscurity –
The old, the few, the forgotten
Thought back into being
Whispering the secrets of Renewal
To bring Love into Willing…
~hag

16 January 2022 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Welcome to the Eve of the 1st Full Moon of 2022 – the Wolf Moon, Snow Moon or Hunger Moon. We experience the energy of a Full Moon as it is cresting, so 3 days before, & also for 3 days after; though the real power is in the Eve before hitting exact on January 17, at 5:48 p.m. CST

Interesting to think of the Hopi name for this moon – Paamuya or Moon of Life at its Height – comparing the January Full Moon to the Summer Sun, for it follows the path of the Sun six months from now, riding high in the sky.

Thinking of it in terms of constellations, the January Sun beams in front of the constellation Capricornus. The January Full Moon shines in front of the constellation Cancer. Six months from now, the Sun will shine in front of that constellation.

All Full Moons are opposite the Sun. So we can expect to see Bella Luna in the East at dusk, tonight and tomorrow. She will climb upward in the evening hours, and soar to her highest point around midnight. If you’re an earlier riser, watch for her these next couple of mornings, low in the Western sky during the wee hours before sunrise.

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

1838 – Birthday of Franz Brentano an influential German philosopher, psychologist, & priest whose work strongly influenced not only students Edmund Husserl, Sigmund Freud, Kazimierz Twardowski, Alexius Meinong, Carl Stumpf, Anton Marty, Christian von Ehrenfels, and Tomáš Masaryk, but many others whose work would follow &make use of his original ideas & concepts. Rudolf Steiner recalls the obituary he gave of Brentano as part of his lecture The Case for Anthroposophy where he also speaks about the Separation of the ‘Psychological from the Non-Psychological’ in Franz Brentano.

1901 – Deathday of Arnold Böcklin a Swiss symbolist painter. Rudolf Steiner speaks about him in an incarnation as an Arthurian Knight

1945 – Adolf Hitler moves into his underground bunker, the so-called Führerbunker

1954 – Birthday of Sergei Olegovich Prokofieff – In the biographical sketch given by Rolf Herzog of the Christian Community we hear that Sergei kept secret his inner connection with the spiritual world; that as a child he never had the impression that this was his first time on the earth; and that, in his ninth year he rediscovered esoteric Christianity through the Parzival story which was read aloud to him from the libretto of Wagner’s opera by his grandfather, in their home in Moscow. Sergei, starting at the age of 14, spent his vacations in Max Voloschin’s home in the Crimea, where he found books by Rudolf Steiner in the comprehensive library there .

Sergei had a rich inner life with an intense adolescence of spiritual seeking that included many mystical experiences. From his own words: “Everything Rudolf Steiner spoke of was already known to me, but I was unable to express it in thoughts before then. What had lived in my soul as a general, undefined feeling was now penetrated by a conscious clarity of thought.”

In the years between 1971 and 1973, when he was 17 to 19 years old, he wrote extraordinary poetry about the path out of the darkness into the light – about spiritual battles and apocalyptic events, with profound honesty and dramatic inner force. “I was awakened in the night by the powerful inspiration, as though awakened by the verses themselves. I rushed to my desk in order to capture the poetic words and images quickly—often putting on paper a poem that had arisen fully formed in me—frequently more than one; it was as if they themselves were striving and streaming towards the page. They were the poems of a ‘soul on fire.’” These poems had remained hidden in a cupboard in his parent’s Moscow home— he had shown them to no one when they were written—until he rediscovered them there on a visit during his illness. He decided to publish them by a non-anthroposophical press in Moscow in a splendid volume of more than 400 pages entitled ‘The Mystic Fire of the Soul’.

The voice of the verses went silent around the time of his first moon node, when he decided out of the most profound depths of his soul not only to read the writings of Rudolf Steiner
but also to choose anthroposophy as the central task of his life and his destiny. With this, his biography changed: “Only when the decision had been made and I experienced with full force that my life had received new meaning and purpose was I led out of my original lonely condition by the guidance of my destiny—I was taking the first steps to serve those ideals
consciously which had previously lived below the surface in my soul and which now had become for me a fully conscious reality thanks to spiritual science.”

Prokofieff, wrote his first book, Rudolf Steiner and the Founding of the New Mysteries, while living in Soviet Russia. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, he was a co-founder of the Anthroposophical Society in Russia. At Easter 2001, he became a member of the Executive Council of the General Anthroposophical Society in Dornach, Switzerland.

At the core of his work is an attempt to develop a deepened understanding for Christianity on the basis of Rudolf Steiner’s spiritual-scientific research. Peter Selg, in his memorial address, after Sergei died an early death on 26 July 2014, described him as “this most inwardly faithful pupil of Rudolf Steiner and protector of his new revelation of Christ.” Sergei had a powerful way of bringing together complex connections & interrelationships from Steiner’s ideas.

As part of the Vorstand he felt it was his calling to fulfill Steiner’s ideal of making the Goetheanum into a contemporary Mystery Center. Read more about this amazing individual in the articles written about his life in ‘Anthroposophy Worldwide‘. Or pick up one of his many books, & read the fruits of his insights for yourself. Prokofieff was a prolific writer leaving us a treasure trove of Works.

1970 – Buckminster Fuller receives the Gold Medal award from the American Institute of Architects

RUDOLF STEINER’S CALENDAR OF THE SOUL
translated (with added titles) by Roy Sadler
EPIPHANY III
Seeing With The Heart
v42
The soul in gloom of winter moved
to bring to light her life’s own force
her impulse is to guide it far
and in the dark forefeel
through warmth of heart
the life the senses will reveal.

In winter’s darkness can we experience what it can tell us about ourselves
and the world, receiving through ‘warmth of heart’ new sense revelations?
In the mirror verse, exploring the beauty of the world in midsummer light,
can we lose ourselves, expand into the supersensory world to experience
the Cosmic Self, the Christ?

THE SUMMER SOLSTICE
Midsummer Wisdom
v11
It rests this sun’s high hour with you
to recognise the call of wisdom:
In you, absorbed in worlds where beauty lies,
through all your feeling realise:
the human I can lose itself
and find itself within the Cosmic I.

Sometimes you need another chance. Because sometimes…the timing is better the second time around!
Starting now through January 18 you can register with pro-rated tuition for Applied Anthroposophy. Access to all previous recordings from these programs will be included, leaving you free to catch up on your own time as you jump right into our current courses.

Click here to register for Applied Anthroposophy by 1/18!

The Applied Anthroposophy Course (AAC) had over 180 people from all over the world participate in the first semester. You have two options to register this January:

1. Register for our weekly Seed Series Presentations (check out our stellar faculty here!)

2. Register for the Full Program which includes the Seed Series as well as the option to join up to six themed Chrysalis Groups that meet each week. (I lead the Thursday morning Chrysalis Group: ‘The Cycle of the Year as Path of Initiation’ with artist Nancy Melvin, 9:30 am CT. )

Course Dates: January 26 – May 25, 2022

Full Program Tuition: $400*

Seed Series Only: $200

*Additional Youth and Equity Discounts available

Allow the Appearance

January 12, 2022Celestial Event, Central Regional Council, Community, Speaking with the Stars~hag

Here is the Podcast of today’s offering on ‘I Think Speech’.

I am holding in my consciousness that we are in the season of Epiphany, which is often defined as a revelation, I can’t help picturing it as a cartoon image of the lightbulb over the head – indicating a sudden, intuitive insight – where it all makes sense. An Epiphany is often related to the appearance or manifestation of a spiritual being or phenomenon – But I don’t think a true Epiphany happens by chance, or comes as some fliting flash that fades away.

I think of the example of what we hear in the book of Matthew – how the Magi prepared, perhaps for lifetimes before they made it to Epiphany. And in the 5^th Gospel we read how Jesus of Nazareth was prepared 1^st thru 42 generations, & then for 30 years, before he received the Christ in the Baptism by John in the Jordan. And we have to work thru all of the 13 Holy Nights to reach the Epiphany, which is not just a day, but a season, that takes us into the 1^st stirrings of Spring – still frozen & invisible, but tickling the roots, awakening the sap, willing it to rise…

Thru all that is happening to darken or distract us in the world, I have been trying to live into this, to see thru a glass darkly, looking, always searching, for the light hiding in the shadows, which can reveal the revelation – allow the appearance.

I have been thinking about the ‘Appearance’, ‘The Manifestation’, The Advent of Christ, in the Etheric World. And it just so happens that 112 years ago TODAY, Rudolf Steiner gives the 1st lecture ever on the Etheric Reappearance of The Christ (see link below) Sometimes when I contemplate this amazing mystery, it comes to me in the picture of an assembly – a convocation, a summit. But mostly I see it as an intimate meeting; or a like blind date, where we are introduced thru a mutual friend – thru our connection to Anthroposophia, which gives us the wisdom to see with new eyes. We receive from this part of ourselves the invite – the entre to the cosmic party. It’s an open invitation, but it takes more than just spinning around 3 times to remove the blindfold – to lift the veil that separates us from meeting this reality.

The Christ, in his rhythmical Presence, presses forward into the etheric realm, into the realm of the formative forces which envelop the earth to fortify & maintain all life; & Steiner says “Humanity on its natural path of development touches on that sphere with our soul forces” – So that gets me asking, Ok, how do we do our part, on this natural path, to develop those soul forces of Thinking, Feeling & Willing, in this new way? How do we employ Imagination, Inspiration & Intuition without expectation, with the utmost faith & patience, to achieve the 1^st glimmering – an awakening of our etheric eyes, a new supersensible sensing, which can experience the life-body?

Steiner says “We think we see with our eyes, but we don’t literally see with these outer organs. They are a kind of microscope, or telescope, or camera, a fairly dead body in us. We see by means of it, with etheric activity.”

Seeing Eye to Eye—Colorblindness and Out of the Box Spotfire Tools - BPI - The destination for everything process related

He explains that we perceive colors as the result of etheric activity. If we look at green & afterwards at a white sheet of paper, we see it’s reversal as red. (hmm the Christmas colors, go ahead get out your crayons & give it a try) This seeing is due to the continuation of the etheric activity of the eye, which answers to the impressions of colors. We see a balance. We never see an actual color as it is, but always a balance.

We produce complementary colors thru the etheric activity of our eye; & what we see – the final physical effect, is a balance, even if we are not consciously aware of it. (Think 3D Glasses!)

But when we do make it our intention to be conscious, we became co-creators of this new etheric sight.

For more practical exercises in seeing into the etheric, I recommend working with Baruch Urieli’s amazing book: Learning to Experience The Etheric World – with the very interesting sub-title: Empathy, the After-Image & a New Social Ethic.

Rudolf Steiner suggests in his lectures ‘From Jesus to Christ’, (Which is what the Holy Nights are all about) that it is our own etheric activity which lightens up that sphere in which the Etheric Christ is present.

And I have come to see that thru our own activity in connection with The Sophia as a Being of Light, we can shed some Light on Love, waiting in the realm of our formative forces for us to perceive & interact with.

It is an activity, which in its clarity, & beauty, can be strengthened not only thru the specific spiritual discipline of the 6 Basic exercises, & the meditative path, but thru moral development, which brings a balance, in wholeness.

Working the 8-fold path & the 6B are certainly key. And for me right now Equanimity is helping to give a flow to my moral progress. When we take hold of the reins of our emotions & steer them where we want to go, it improves the etheric light which we can pour from our heart down into the limbs & then back up to our head, & out thru our eyes, into the etheric world to light up the Christ.

May this New Year bring us ever closer to a true vision of our shared spiritual reality

See you there

~hag

12 January 2021 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Low in the sunset, Mercury & Saturn dance in the Sea-goat, while Jupiter looks on.

Yep, today is my Half Birthday! My astrologer friend Victoria Martin says 1/2 b-day’s are the ‘low point of the natal year’…grrr…& soon Mercury (occult Venus) will go retro…Ok 2022 here we come…

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

“I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do”. ~Leonardo da Vinci

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

1910 – Rudolf Steiner gives the 1^st lecture ever on the Etheric Reappearance of The Christ, to members in Stockholm Sweden. At the same time as the “initiation” of Krishnamurti in Adyar. True Nature of the Second Coming – Preparation for this Event through the Development of Etheric Vision ~RS Then on January 25^th Rudolf Steiner begins the series The Reappearance of Christ in the Etheric for the members in Dornach

to be in formed

January 10, 2022Biography, Celestial Event, Insight, Speaking with the Stars~hag

Contemporary Cave Painting | 7 January - 21 February 2015 - Overview | Rebecca Hossack Art Gallery — Rebecca Hossack

Here are today’s Leading Thought’s spoken to In-Form on ‘I Think Speech’

What wants to be in-formed on the Earth now, & how can we give it expression? What is required to build a bridge to the spiritual stream that wants to manifest for us in the realm of formative forces. This etheric stream waiting with power at the edges of our consciousness must be able to pour into those that would make a chalice to embrace it, so that these Christic forces can incarnate thru us in the world.

This is the task of those working in the School of Michael now. We are called to recognize all that lives deep within the inner layers of the earth; as well as what is being offered from the periphery, to co-create formative forces that foster harmony & healing love; to build a communal etheric body, together; which will enable us to develop spiritual organs with higher faculties into the future.

This requires a fundamental change in our perception, & reception, of what the Being of Wisdom is for us now – & how this reflection is directly connected to the goals of the spiritual worlds – which are asking us to DO Anthroposophy, to practice Spiritual Science – to transform our soul forces, with a new kind of willing – to not only think about it, but deeply feel, & will it, not just for ourselves, but with a sort of collective modern Manicheanism, that acts as a curative catalyst for all. So that the Being of Anthroposophia is able to live, breathe & weave among us – not only in our concepts, but in the very ‘Etherization of our Blood’, working down into our limbs, in collaboration with the supersensible guidance of the School of Michael.

We must will to learn, to feel, & embody, this Spiritual Being among us. Then we will be able to build a collective etheric body as the vessel that will exemplify on the earth this Supersensible School. This new communal etheric body that must be consciously built by the whole community of the School of Spiritual Science – is linked to the power given to us thru Rudolf Steiner’s sacrifice, & thru the etheric body of Christian Rosenkreuz; so deeply connected to the mysteries of the etheric appearance of The Christ in our time. The eternal forces of these great initiates, full of the most creative expression of becoming & metamorphosis, must develop into a quickening for OUR life body – built up & personified, here & now, in our freed etheric hearts, as we work together to shape the new etheric body of the Cosmopolitan Michaelic Stream. Then the real life forces streaming out of the universal etheric will become a source of vibrant new creative life, for all humanity. We must strive to be able to sense & live into this source; to be inspired by its light & warmth, as we ‘Walk the Talk’ of true Spiritual Science.

Sergei O Prokofieff, who was a deeply striving human being gives us these words: “It is after all the most important task of the anthroposophists of the twentieth century, to give the etheric body of Rudolf Steiner—by means of their work dedicated loyally to the essential spiritual impulse of Anthroposophy—such a power, that this etheric body will enable his pupils, that will be enlightened by it, to experience the Christ in a direct way. Or in other words: that the Christ Himself will be able, from the end of the twentieth century on, to work through the etheric body of Rudolf Steiner among his pupils.”

Prokofieff awakens us to this gift from Rudolf Steiner, which must inform our work of embodying the esoteric – thru a communal practice -which must be actualized in concrete, practical life. Yes, friends, I woke up with this thought because the dead are working with us, Gene Gollogly, Dr. David Gershan & Sergei & others are conduits broadcasting to us the ‘Will of Worlds’. And we are the limbs of the gods that must make it happen. See you on the frontlines, that border between the seen & unseen.

~hag

10 January 2021- “Speaking with the Stars”: Early-morning observers up before the Sun can enjoy a full view of Hydra the Water Snake this morning. Covering roughly 1,303 square degrees, this is the largest of the officially recognized 88 constellations in our sky.

Sunrise: 7:22 A.M.
Sunset: 4:54 P.M.
Moonrise: 12:08 P.M.
Moonset: 12:45 A.M.
Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous (60%)

Studio Olafur Eliasson — Olafer Ellashon

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

1881- From a letter written to Joseph Kock we learn that in the night of the 10-11 January 1881, Rudolf Steiner had an experience of the ‘eternal ‘I’ as he was studying Schelling

“Since the Mystery of Golgotha, someone who begins to ask questions will be able to find the right way of doing so, and will also get the right feeling for the new Isis Mystery. What matters today, then, is to ask the right questions, and develop the right attitude to the spiritual world view that can now be presented. Someone who merely wishes to judge can read any number of books and lectures without learning anything apart from mere words. Someone, on the other hand, who approaches in a questing mood, will learn far more than can be found in the words. He will find that these words bear fruit in the powers of growth that lie in his own soul. Anything the spirit teaches us must become real inner experience. That is the important thing.” ~Rudolf Steiner, The Mysteries of the Holy Grail, Chapter 7, “The Questioning Stance of Soul”, excerpts from Steiner’s lectures given at Berlin on 6 January 1914 … focus of the January 12 meeting.

These chapters from the book can be found online at the CRC’s website by clicking this link
A transcript of the 6 January, 1914 lecture can be found on the RS Archive by clicking this link
The Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society in America invites you to join our ongoing study conversation. The study has been divided among two volunteers who will summarize their section to rebuild it as a foundation for our conversation. Please familiarize yourself with the lecture if possible so you will feel comfortable sharing your reflections and thoughts with the group. This collection of lectures has been republished by Rudolf Steiner Press under the title: “The Mysteries of the Holy Grail — from Arthur and Parzival to Modern Initiation.” The book was compiled and edited by Matthew Barton, published by Rudolf Steiner Press in 2010.

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Agenda for this meeting (CST)

7:15 Welcome and Introductions
7:18 Verse
7:25 Study led by volunteers
Note: CRC team will ID volunteers
Travis – pg. 53 to 57 (top)
Tom – pg. 57 to 61
7:50 Conversation
8:25 ID volunteers for next meeting
8:28 Close with verse
There is a knighthood of the 21st century
whose riders do not ride through the darkness
of physical forests as of old, but through the forest of darkened minds.
They are armed with a spiritual armor and an inner sun makes them radiant.
Out of them shines healing,
healing that flows from the knowledge of the human being as a spiritual being.
They must create inner order, inner justice, peace and conviction in the darkness of our time.
~Karl Konig

NYE the ‘Hidden Holy Night’

December 31, 2021Celestial Event, Community, Festival, History, Speaking with the Stars, Storytelling~hag

Greetings friends – I thought to pop my head up from the Epic of Gilgamesh Holy Nights Storytelling to bring you these thoughts on NYE 2021-22

Here is the more succinct version of this ‘Hidden Holy Night‘ on the ‘I Think Speech’ Podcast

Deeply embedded in our cultural tradition of ‘Ringing out the old & Ringing in the new’ on the eve of the New Year, lives many celestial synchronicities, which change every year, but for the last 70 years, with 30 more to go – at Midnight, we are directly ‘downstream’ from the star Sirius.

Because Sirius is the brightest star in our sky, next to the Sun, in antiquity it was known as ‘The Shining One’. It is also called the Dog Star because of its presence in the constellation Canis Major (Greater Dog) The ancient Egyptians referred to Sirius as ‘Isis’ (Sothis) & built their calendar around the rising & setting of this magnificent star. It is interesting to note that our time now is a recapitulation of ancient Egypt (the 3^rd cultural epoch) What can we take from that time & make it new?

The Egyptians believed that Sirius had a tremendous effect upon life on our planet. In particular, they felt that Sirius could open a portal into the spiritual world, so they oriented the pyramid at Giza to the Sirius light.

The Sirius system is directly “upstream” of our solar system within the galactic arm of our Milky Way Galaxy (the Orion arm). And of all the stars in our skies, only Sirius exactly matches the length of our solar year, 365.25 days. This exact correlation has led some to surmise that Sirius is related to our Sun as a binary star. Sirius imprints upon us, like the Sun, a realignment of our own vibrational patterns, touched by the perfection of this Golden Proportion.

Our magical midnight of New Beginnings marks the moment when the energies of Sirius, directly overhead, & the forces of the Sun shining thru the earth from the other side, bring transformational re-alignment. The Golden mean holds the codes of perfection which are eternal. To be in conscious attendance of the positional relationship of the Sun & the star Sirius in the mid-heaven at midnight -visualizing the Earth – & all life – in its ultimate perfection – enables us to receive the empowerment of the Spiritual world directly into our consciousness

“Behold the Sun
At the midnight hour;
Build with stones in the lifeless ground,
Thus in decay and in the night of Death
Find the Creation’s new beginning,
Young morning’s strength;
Glory in the heights the eternal Word of Gods;
Shelter in the depths the Powers of Peace.
In darkness dwelling, create a Sun.
In matter weaving, know the joy of Spirit”! ~Rudolf Steiner Schmidt Number: S-1456

“On New Year’s Eve our folk soul briefly releases us & consequently what we then think is perceived by the highest hierarchies & has the power in it to be brought into reality” ~Rudolf Steiner in conversation with Herbet Hahn, reported in Das Goetheanum, # 3, Jan 4, 1990

“It is really the case that what was taught the Mystery-pupils at Ephesus concerning the primeval Word lies in the opening sentences of the John Gospel. It is indeed very fitting for Anthroposophists to turn their attention today, on this Cosmic New Year’s Eve, to these secrets which rest in the lap of time; for in a certain sense, that which stood here on the Dornach hill as the Goetheanum had become the centre of anthroposophical activity. The pain we feel today must continue to be pain, and will do so in everyone who was able to feel what the Goetheanum was intended to be. But to one who is striving upwards in his knowledge towards the spiritual all that takes place in the physical world must be for him an external manifestation, a picture of the spiritual which lies behind it. We as human beings striving after spiritual knowledge must be able to turn what has caused this pain into an opportunity for looking spiritually into a revelation which leads us into greater and greater depths. This Goetheanum was to have been a place in which one hoped to have spoken, and in which we have spoken again and again of those things which are connected with the opening words of the John Gospel:

“In the Primal Beginning was the Word — the Logos — and the Word was with God, and a god was the Word.”

Then the Goetheanum was destroyed by fire. This terrible picture of the burning Goetheanum arises before us. The pain may give birth to the summons to look ever more deeply into that which lives in the power of our thought, into this burning Goetheanum of New Year’s Eve. That is an experience, painful though it is, which leads us into greater and greater depths. That which we wished to have founded in this Goetheanum, which is connected with the John Gospel, these already form an enclosure within these burning consuming flames. And it is an important impulse which we may grasp: Let these flames be for us the occasion to look through them to other flames, those flames which once long ago consumed the Temple of Ephesus. Let us look upon them as a summons to us to try and fathom that which stands at the beginning of the John Gospel. Urged by this painfully sacred impulse, let us look back from the John Gospel to the Temple of Ephesus — which once was also burned down — and then in the Goetheanum flames, which speak indeed so painfully we shall receive a monition from that which streams into the Akasha with the burning flames of the Ephesian Temple.

Herostratus burns the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus

Even today, if we look back on that night of misfortune, to those fierce flames of the Goetheanum conflagration, do we not still find in them the molten metals of the musical instruments which speak a language so pure and holy? Do we not find in these molten metals those musical instruments which conjured into the flames those wonderful colours — variously speaking colours — colours closely connected with the metals? Through connection with the metals something arises like memory in the earth-substance. This memory we have of that which was consumed with the Temple at Ephesus. And just as these two conflagrations may be connected, so the longing to investigate the meaning of “In the Primal Beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and a god was the Word” may be connected somewhat with the words which again and again were made clear to the pupil at Ephesus: “Study the mystery of man in the small word, in the micrologos; thereby thou shalt make thyself ripe to experience in thyself the mystery of the macrologos.”

Man is the microcosm as contrasted with the world which is the macrocosm, but he also bears within him the mysteries of the cosmos, and we can decipher the cosmic mystery contained in the first three verses of the John Gospel if we bear in mind in the right sense that into which, as into many other things also, the flames of the Goetheanum condensed, as if in written characters:

“Behold the Logos
In the burning fire
Seek the solution
In the house of Diana.”

The Akashic Record of the fire of last New Year’s Eve speaks these words very clearly, together with many others; and they make on us the demand to establish in the microcosm the micrologos, so that man may gain the understanding of that out of which his whole being has been formed — the macrocosmos — through the macrologos. ~Rudolf Steiner, Mystery Centres, Lecture IV, Dornach, December 1923

The Christmas Conference:

World History in the light of Anthroposophy, Lecture VIII: The Burning of the Ephesian Temple and the Goetheanum, Dornach 31st December 1923 Morning

The Envy of the Gods — The Envy of Human Beings

“Our end-of-year festival will begin with Frau Dr. Steiner giving us a recitation of the beautiful Norwegian legend of Olaf Åsteson, of whom we are told that at the approach to Christmas he fell into a kind of sleep which lasted for thirteen days; the thirteen holy days that we have explored in various ways. In the course of this sleep he had significant experiences, that he was able to narrate when he awoke.

Olaf Åsteson, Olaf the son of earth, experiences various secrets of the cosmic All whilst he is transported into the macrocosm during the thirteen shortest days. And the nordic legend which has recently been extricated from old accounts, tells of these experiences Olaf Åsteson had between Christmas and New Year up till the 6th January. We often have reason to remember this former manner in which the microcosm took part in the macrocosm, and we can then take these things further. First of all, however, let us hear the legend of Olaf Åsteson, the earth son, who during the time in which we are now, experienced the secrets of cosmic existence in his meeting with the earth spirit. Let us listen to these experiences.

This legend brings us tidings of ancient knowledge and insight into the spiritual worlds, which we shall regain once more through what we call the spiritual-scientific world outlook.

The human soul has slept long indeed, but world spirits will approach and call to it, ‘Awaken now, O Olaf Asteson!’ — Only we have to prepare ourselves in the right way, so that it does not happen that we are faced with the call, ‘Awaken now, O Olaf Åsteson!’ and have not the ears to hear it. That is why we are engaged in spiritual science, so that we shall have the ears to hear, when the call to be spiritually awake sounds in human evolution.

~Rudolf Steiner, Art as Seen in the Light of Mystery Wisdom, Lecture 4, COSMIC NEW YEAR, Dornach, 31st December 1914

“…Two cycles interpenetrate at this time of the year, approximately around New Year’s Eve.

The approach of New Year’s Eve may therefore appear to us like the approach of a messenger from the spiritual world, revealing to us the mysteries connected with the end of the year and bringing us the following message: The secret of existence consists in the fact that cycles INTERPENETRATE

“Behold, in the midst of the dark cold winter season the vegetable consciousness unites with the mineral consciousness of the earth. Let this be a sign to you that the earth too has its own cycle, namely the great cosmic year mentioned by Zarathustra, which goes from one Cosmic New Year’s Eve to the other, and which we must understand if we wish to grasp the course of human development.”

Zarathustra speaks of twelve thousands of years. He described the course of one Earthly Year, and divided it into four seasons representing the course of human evolution upon the earth. This is deeply rooted in the spiritual mysteries.

The thirteen days from the 24th of December to the 6th of January are the days in which the plants’ consciousness unites with the mineral consciousness. If the human being can transfer himself into the consciousness of the plants, he can see and dream of many mysteries which pass through his heart in many forms — he can have dreams such as that of Olaf Åsteson.

If we develop such feelings and moods, we obtain the right attitude towards the aims of our spiritual knowledge; these warm feelings which stream through our heart are a preparation for the New Cosmic Year, and they enable us to await it worthily, to look forward to that cosmic New Year’s Eve which brings a new cosmic year. In future incarnations, when our souls will pass through the great Cosmic New Year, we shall experience it in the right way if the end of the year which closes the small cycle of twelve months becomes a symbol for the great end of the year which closes a cycle of twelve thousand years.

This is the secret of our existence. The things which take place upon a small scale always correspond to the things which take place upon a large scale, and upon a large scale the things are the same as upon a small scale. The small scale, the course of one year, can only be grasped if it becomes a symbol for the great cosmic course, for the cycle which encompasses thousands of years.

The year is an image for the Aeons. And Aeons are the reality of symbols which we encounter in the course of one year. If we really understand the year’s course, our hearts will be deeply moved to the mysteries of the cosmos, at this time of the year which marks the beginning of a new year. Let us try to attune our soul so that it can look into the new year conscious of the fact that it can bear within it the year’s course as a symbol for the great COSMIC course, which encompasses all the mysteries pursued by spiritual Beings who surge and weave through the universe from aeon to aeon, in the same way in which the Lesser Gods pursue the mysteries connected with the development of the vegetable and mineral Kingdoms during the course of one year. ~Rudolf Steiner THE YEAR’S COURSE AS A SYMBOL FOR THE GREAT COSMIC YEAR 31st of December, 1915.

“On New Year’s Eve it is always fitting to remember how past and future are linked together in life and in the existence of the world, how past and future are linked in the whole life of the Cosmos of which man is a part, how past and future are linked in every fraction of that life with which our own individual existence is connected, is interwoven through all that we were able to do and to think during the past year, and through all that we are able to plan for the coming year…

What we are striving for in Anthroposophical Spiritual Science is this: To receive with goodwill all that is seeking to enter through spiritual revelation from another world — from a world, however, which bears within it this world of ours — and to clothe these revelations in terms by which they can be communicated to humanity. These revelations are nothing less than that which definitely (in a certain respect) guarantees the future of mankind.

As long as questions of this kind are not considered with due earnestness, we have not arrived at the right understanding of the Cosmic New Year’s Eve. At the present moment, it is essential to reach this right understanding. It is essential for us to extend our sympathies — alas, our sympathies often arise from egoistic sources — to the great human relations, and to feel for the whole of mankind that human sympathy which impels us to make a spiritual movement like this effectively fruitful for the evolution of mankind.

May you experience, my dear friends, at this very time, that it is the Spirit of the Cosmos itself, which has been seeking entrance. May you experience during the coming night, that this Spirit which seeks to enter humanity, shall here so be served that the souls of those, who will to feel with and who will to think with Anthroposophical Spiritual Science, may feel their union with this new Spirit which wills to enter the world — the Spirit which alone can bring to the earthly world, the world that is destroying itself — the new upbuilding impulse out of Heaven. In this hour, a symbolic hour every year, demanding that we experience it as the decisive hour between past and future — in this hour may you unite your souls with the new Spirit; may you so experience in your souls the contact of the past year with the coming year, that the Cosmic Year which is passing away, may contact itself with the dawning Cosmic Year.

But the passing Cosmic Year will still send many an after-effect into the future; destructive forces into the spheres of Spirit, of Equity, of Economics. Therefore it is all the more needful, that as many men as possible shall be seized in the innermost depths of their souls by the New Year of the Spiritual Future, and shall develop a Will which may be the foundation of a new spiritual world, a world to be built into the future evolution of mankind”. ~Rudolf Steiner The Cosmic New Year, lecture 4, 31st December, 1919

These words echoing out from a 100 years ago reaching us today, are a call to put 2021 hindsight into the New Year so we can find our way out of dis-ease & the disconnect with the natural world that got us here. A call to implement what Spiritual Science calls the 3-fold social organism, where the Cultural Realm, which embraces the ideal of freedom in education, medicine, & Spirituality must be upheld; & the ideal of equality & equity must be fostered in the political, rights realm, Taking the Economics realm out of both those spheres, so that it serves to unite humanity in fellowship, not divide us thru greed. We have been called to see clearly what is behind the current world crisis, so that we can co-create a better future where our highest human potential is promoted & nurtured. This is our birthright & our deep responsibility.

In 2022 may we get a clue & say I LOVE YOU!

May we all meet in consciousness the spiritual powers that avail themselves to us on this Cosmic New Year’s Eve.

See you at 10:10 & in the cosmic midnight hour where all is possible for Peace, Unconditional Love & Good Will.

Blessings Dear Friends, & Happy New year.

~hag

Cognitive Ritual

~Confessions of a Modern Rosicrucian

Category Archives: Speaking with the Stars

Convergence

Bring Love into Willing

Allow the Appearance

to be in formed

NYE the ‘Hidden Holy Night’

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