Category Archives: Speaking with the Stars

All is Open

Kenneth Semmeply

I glide…on the winds of change blowing in hot & cold currents, as the season shifts – Smoothing the air – not like a leaf in the fall, but as a hawk, eyes penetrating into the essence of all….filled with wild strength & elemental power – yet safely rocking as in a mother’s arms – ensconced & tender.

All is open, there is no fixed schema, no anxiety or fear, no bullets-points on the agenda…The sky is vast – ready to receive – whatever my long-sighted wings want to inscribe on it…

As the wind releases, I slide down, toward wild trees encircled by streams & jutting glacial rock sprouting bright orange lichen & limey moss – Sun-drenched & shining…Gently, soundlessly…I reach the rich earth – strewn with the scent of living humus.

Mara Clear

Finding the power of my limbs, I walk – a well-trodden path – heading in an unfamiliar direction. I revel in the 1st hint of color dressing the trees…& the silence – broken only by the play of the elements: the song of birds, the water flowing, the busy animals. Ahead the path opens into a clearing ringed with ancient sentinel trees to make a shady grove. I recognize this Place. I remove my shoes to let my feet become one with the hallowed ground – Singing a blessing of thanks & praise – I cross the threshold between 2 mighty oaks.

Standing in the center of a cairn littered labyrinth, I see the bright figure of a woman. The quintessence of her visage becomes clear when she speaks my secret name, which I have not yet learned to pronounce. She is bidding me to come forward – to enter the spiraling labyrinth.

Kristina Carroll

I take the 1st step – & the path pulls me forward. I cannot tell of this journey, for it is my own…you have yours too…& it never ends…But when we reach the center – Anthroposophia – The She in me & we – leans forward to welcome our embrace.  She whispers a truth that reverberates thru the embryo of the ear so that all may hear – a well-reasoned wisdom speaking – something we already know, but have perhaps forgotten. It may be like the core of common sense; or perhaps it strikes the funny-bone like the humor of nonsense; or maybe it opens the heart to wonder. It may be a simple truth, or a complex mystical teaching which will require further deepening, or that which leads to a hero’s task. However it is heard, receive it as a benediction. 

Let the bright woman braid a chain of flowers into your hair – touch your fingers to your crown knowing your mind has been forever changed, released, opened to all the possibilities that will transform your thoughts into things…

Spin with joy, noticing all at once, that the bright woman has vanished – & now, standing before us, is a dark figure, looking strangely familiar. Can you make out her face there in the shadow? She is carrying a bundle over her shoulder. She lays her burden down at our feet. The dark woman speaks with a voice that resonates to the bone…She calls us each with a special tone only we can hear. Will you answer & come forward? If you choose to, don’t close your eyes when the embrace pulls you in…

Wendy Canterpen

The Dark She gently whispers a truth into your left ear. It is a truth that you know is right. The truth touches your heart & frees your soul. You remember the bird, soaring thru clear skies, singing a song of joy & longing. When you return to the depths, the dark woman has vanished, & the bundle she was carrying, & then left there at your feet, has transformed, into a large pyramid of rich honey-colored amber. Pick up a piece & warm it in your hand…

The Sun calls you to lift the amber up…bring it up, into the light…Let the sunshine merge with this solid symbol of your vitality…Breathe in the pranic life-force emanating from your true purpose made manifest…

William Fenewell

Put this treasure in your breast pocket, as you leave the Sacred Place…forever knowing that your inner sanctuary goes where your intention flows…Knowing that union is possible between the many parts of our being…

Walking on in confidence… Balanced in the light & dark of our most authentic self…We walk the path from the wilderness…curving & mounding onto a city street. And as we stand in a circle there on the curb, in the oblique angle of the autumning Sun, feel how minds & bodies are changing – like the leaves. What color are you now?

Xox

~hag

13 October 2021 – “Speaking with the Stars“: The waxing moon sweeps past bright Jupiter and fainter Saturn in the evening sky

Trent Blazer

Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.” ~H.G. Wells

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

In 1307 October 13 was a Friday – Hundreds of Knights Templar in France are simultaneously arrested by agents of Phillip the Fair, to be later tortured into a “confession” of heresy. Once freed of the Inquisitors’ torture, many Templars recanted their confessions. Some had sufficient legal experience to defend themselves in the trials, but in 1310 Philip blocked this attempt, using the previously forced confessions to have dozens of Templars burned at the stake in Paris. With Philip threatening military action unless the pope complied with his wishes, Pope Clement finally agreed to disband the Order, citing the public scandal that had been generated by the confessions. At the Council of Vienne in 1312, he issued a series of papal bulls, which officially dissolved the Order. As for the leaders of the Order, the elderly Grand Master Jacques de Molay, who had confessed under torture, retracted his confession & insisted on his innocence. But he was declared guilty of being a relapsed heretic & was sentenced to be burnt at the stake in Paris on 18 March 1314. De Molay reportedly remained defiant to the end, calling out from the flames that both Pope Clement & King Philip would soon meet their end. Pope Clement died only a month later, & King Philip died in a hunting accident before the end of the year

1792 –The cornerstone of the United States Executive Mansion (known as the White House since 1818) is laid

1917 – The “Miracle of the Sun” is witnessed by an estimated 100,000 people in the Cova da Iria in Fátima, Portugal. The people had gathered because the 3 shepherd children, who originally claimed to have seen Our Lady of Fátim, had predicted that at high noon the lady who had appeared to them several times would perform a great miracle. According to many witnesses, after a period of rain, the dark clouds broke & the sun appeared as an opaque, spinning disc in the sky. It was said to be significantly duller than normal, & to cast multicolored lights across the landscape, the people, & the surrounding clouds. The sun was then reported to have careened towards the earth before zig-zagging back to its normal position. Witnesses reported that their previously wet clothes became “suddenly & completely dry, as well as the wet & muddy ground that had been previously soaked because of the rain that had been falling.” According to reports, a panorama of visions, including those of Jesus, Our Lady of Sorrows, & of Saint Joseph blessed the people. The event lasted approximately ten minutes.

STARTS TONIGHT AT 6 PM CT. For those who are longing for a deep dive: The Applied Anthroposophy Course (AAC) brings transformative online content into the alchemy of individual and group inner work. The mission is to explore the urgent issues of our time through the lens of spiritual philosophy, awakening meaning, inner reflection, and outer action.

I will be facilitating one of the Chrysalis Groups: ‘The Cycle of the Year as a Path of Initiation into the New Mysteries’ –

The Royal Art of community awaits your participation.

See you there

~hag

Equilux

Ernestine Grindal

22 September 2021 – “Speaking with the Stars”:  Autumn begins in the Northern Hemisphere, & Spring in the Southern Hemisphere, at the Equinox – 2:21 p.m CDT. This is when the Sun crosses the equator heading south for the season

Our Day-star rises due east & sets due west today. Equinox” comes from the Latin words “equi” meaning “equal” & “nox” meaning “night.” This implies that there will be equal amounts of daylight & darkness, however that is not exactly the case

If the Sun were a point of light & Earth had no atmosphere, everyone would get 12 hours of sunlight & 12 hours of darkness. But the presence of air & the finite size of our star make today 8 minutes longer than 12 hours. This year, the sun will rise at 6:38am CDT on the equinox & will set at 6:47pm

Exactly equal day & night won’t happen until September 25 with sunrise as 6:42 am CDT & sunset at 6:42 pm CDT. This day is known as the Equilux! -“Lux” being Latin for light.

Also, every year when summer turns to fall, Deneb takes over from brighter Vega as the zenith star around the time when twilight fades into night

Develan Maontalphy

At the Autumnal Equinox – the wheel of the year turns & we find ourselves moving into the time of the harvest.  In the tropical zodiac, at equinox, we say the Sun is crossing the celestial equator, moving from Virgo into Libra, the sign of the scales – a time to take stock. Are the scales balanced? Do they tip & spill? Are they full? Do we know what to harvest & what to plow under? Can we identify & cut away outworn habits & emotional baggage that can choke our growth?

Mikalojus Konstantinas Ciurlionis

But in sidereal astrosophy we see the Sun in relation to the actual constellations as they are now, with the Sun actually appearing in the crown of stars in the constellation of the Virgin.

When we use the tropical zodiac, the 4-foldness of the Equinoxes & Solstices form The Cross, which reminds us of an event that occurred only once in history, at the time of the incarnation of Christ. Then, the start of Spring was at 0 degrees of Aries, the Ram – the 1st sign in the zodiac.

At the Equinoxes we have the horizontal beam, a balance of light & darkness. At the Solstices we have the vertical beam, an opposition of light & dark. At Autumn Equinox the Sun is balanced in Libra, which then marks the transition from light to dark. Libra is a threshold, a gateway between the upper chakras & the lower chakras. In the upper signs, from Aries thru Virgo we have a memory of the cosmic human being before we were formed on Earth. From Libra to Pisces, the human form meets the physical world. So we can look at the upper half of the zodiac as being related to our past cosmic creation by the ‘gods’ & the lower half of the zodiac as our human journey of ‘The fall’ & then hopefully our redemption out of our own ego forces.

Iona Miller

The Sidereal zodiac shows us the vernal point has moved thru the ‘procession of the equinoxes’, (The Sun moves backward thru the constellations) so that it is now descending thru the lower half of the zodiac, taking humanity along on its evolutionary journey.

Adorning this great cross, formed from the 4 Cardinal Points of the Equinoxes & Solstices, are the 7 Festivals: Michaelmas, Advent, Christmas, Easter-tide Ascension, Whitsun & St. John’s-tide. These festivals are the 7 Cosmic Roses unfurling from the center of The Cross.

So today on this Autumnal Equinox, we can contemplate & celebrate this solar moment of equality & balance, experienced by everyone around the globe. We can also think about how the world has changed, how the constellations have moved on, how The Christ has united with the Earth, & is now working in us to redeem our evolution.

We can take our initiation in hand when we consciously co-create the festivals in the solar-cycle of the year, working to unfold the 7 Roses of transformation within, & out in the world.

Kristina Carroll

And so it is my friends, that we begin our journey, like Persephone, into the dark of the year…Feel your power go within, like the seed planted deep within the darkness of the Earth…We must be initiated into these dark mysteries before we can truly celebrate life’s renewal…

The apples fall from the tree, the corn & grain are gathered in, the grapes are crushed for wine…The Sun God is sacrificed to the night & the fertile Mother assumes the face of the Wise Crone – the Harvest Hag challenging us to face our shadow…

Balanced Blessings

~hag

Brenda Loschiavo

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Lectures by Rudolf Steiner on this date

1452 – Birthday of Savonarola, an Italian Dominican friar, prophet & preacher active in Renaissance Florence. He was known for his prophecies of civic glory, the destruction of secular art & culture, & his calls for Christian renewal. He denounced clerical corruption, despotic rule & the exploitation of the poor.

While Savonarola intervened with the French king, the Florentines expelled the ruling Medici &, at the friar’s urging, established a “popular” republic, declaring that Florence would be the New Jerusalem, the world center of Christianity.

When Florence refused to join Pope Alexander VI’s Holy League against the French, the Vatican summoned Savonarola to Rome. He disobeyed & further defied the pope by preaching under a ban, highlighting his campaign for reform with processions, bonfires of the vanities, & pious theatricals. In retaliation, the Pope excommunicated him & threatened to place Florence under an interdict. A trial by fire proposed by a rival Florentine preacher to test Savonarola’s divine mandate turned into a fiasco, & popular opinion turned against him. Savonarola & two of his supporting friars were imprisoned. Under torture, Savonarola confessed & the Church condemned, hanged, & burned the three friars in the main square of Florence.

Savonarola’s devotees, the Piagnoni, kept his cause of republican freedom & religious reform alive well into the following century, although the Medici—restored to power in 1512 with the help of the papacy—eventually broke the movement.

1791 – Birthday of Michael Faraday, English physicist & chemist. Although Faraday received little formal education, he was one of the most influential scientists in history. It was by his research on the magnetic field around a conductor carrying a direct current that Faraday established the basis for the concept of the electromagnetic field in physics. Faraday also established that magnetism could affect rays of light & that there was an underlying relationship between the two phenomena.  His inventions of electromagnetic rotary devices formed the foundation of electric motor technology, & it was largely due to his efforts that electricity became practical for use in technology.

As a chemist, Faraday discovered benzene, investigated the clathrate hydrate of chlorine, invented an early form of the Bunsen burner & the system of oxidation numbers, & popularized terminology such as “anode”, “cathode”, “electrode” & “ion”.

Faraday was an excellent experimentalist who conveyed his ideas in clear & simple language. Albert Einstein kept a picture of Faraday on his study wall, alongside pictures of Isaac Newton & James Clerk Maxwell.  Physicist Ernest Rutherford stated, “When we consider the magnitude and extent of his discoveries and their influence on the progress of science and of industry, there is no honour too great to pay to the memory of Faraday, one of the greatest scientific discoverers of all time.”

1991 – The Dead Sea Scrolls are made available to the public for the first time by the Huntington Library

Greetings kindred souls – This year for the APO fund raiser I plan to hold a Dance-A-Thon & Biodynamic Prep-stir 7 pm – 9 pm on Friday 24 September 2021 at the Rudolf Steiner Branch of the Anthroposophical Society in America – Chicago

Featuring Waldorf Alum DJ ‘Grapefruit Effect’ + Circle’s Edge

It’s a potluck community gathering, so please bring food & drink to share – Along with your donation to this amazing program.

We also plan to read some poetry from some of the inmates who are working with Anthroposophy!

If you live out of town you can dance in your neck of the woods in solidarity with us. Please show your generous support…

Xox ~hag, hazel@reverseritual.com

Donate here https://secure.anthroposophy.org/…/anth…/campaign.jsp

Hazel’s Dance-a-thon page for APO

Here is an easy link to get involved in the APO Walk-a-thon this year!

Craig Wiggins

Festival Gathering: Tuesday 28 September on the eve of Michaelmas with Rev’s Jeana Lee & Victoria Capon

Potluck at 5:30
Talk at 7pm

At the Rudolf Steiner Branch, 4249 N Lincoln Ave, Chicago, IL 60618

Meeting The Dragon With Our Four Fold Being – A talk and collaborative sculptural creation

Bring Food & drink for the potluck & a found objects to help build the dragon!
Then our inspiration can come to life through our collaboration.

Jeana Lee was recently ordained as a priest of the Christian Community Movement for Religious Renewal and sent to the congregation in Chicago.  Previously she taught chemistry and math at Green Meadow Waldorf high school.  She enjoys swimming in the lake and is interested in questions of sin and redemption.

Victoria Capon hails from the east coast and is new to Chicago. Before attending seminary she taught at the Waldorf School of Cape Cod. Now she is happily settling into serving the chicago CC congregation and exploring the Windy City

Greetings friends – Come Join us in Chicago
*Special in-person activities for ‘Building the Temple of the Heart’ 
ASA Annual Conference and Members Meeting 7-10 October 2021: 

For those who are longing for a deep dive: The Applied Anthroposophy Course (AAC) brings transformative online content into the alchemy of individual and group inner work. The mission is to explore the urgent issues of our time through the lens of spiritual philosophy, awakening meaning, inner reflection, and outer action.

I will be facilitating one of the Chrysalis Groups: ‘The Cycle of the Year as a Path of Initiation into the New Mysteries’ –

The Royal Art of community awaits your participation.

See you there

~hag

Moon Rabbit

A Tang dynasty (618-906 AD) era mirror depicting the moon goddess with the moon rabbit.

Last night the winds of change unveiled Bella Luna in her Harvest fullness. My beloved & I went on a ramble. It was such a clear night that the Moon Rabbit was front & center. When my girl was little we had a book of Buddhist stories called the Jakata Tales – There was one that we loved where the Rabbit in the Moon is known as “Tsuki no Usagi”.

“Many years ago, the Old Woman of the Moon decided to visit the Earth. She disguised herself as a beggar & asked Fox (Kitsune), Monkey (Saru), & Rabbit (Usagi) for some food.

Monkey climbed a tree & brought her some fruit. Fox went to a stream, caught a fish, & brought it back to her. But Rabbit had nothing to offer but some grass. So he asked the beggar to build a fire. Then Rabbit jumped into it & offered the only thing he had: himself.

Quickly the beggar changed back into the Old Woman of the Moon & pulled Rabbit from the fire. She said “You are most kind, Rabbit, but don’t do anything to harm yourself. Since you were the kindest of all to me, I’ll take you back to the moon as a reminder to all of your selflessness”

The Old Woman carried Rabbit in her arms back to the Moon& he is still there to this very day. Just look at the moon in the night sky & the selfless Rabbit is there!”

Christine Kemp

21 September 2021 – “Speaking with the Stars”

Astrid Jibodh

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

Lectures by Rudolf Steiner on this date

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Global Peace Alliance

World Peace Day

Feast of St. Matthew, a 1st-century Galilean, the son of Alpheus. As a tax collector he was literate in Aramaic & Greek. After his call, Matthew invited Jesus home for a feast. On seeing this, the Scribes & the Pharisees criticized Jesus for eating with tax collectors & sinners. This prompted Jesus to answer, “Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do. Go and learn the meaning of the words, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ I did not come to call the righteous but sinners” (Matthew 9:12-13)

19 BC – Deathday of Virgil, Roman poet

1780 –  Benedict Arnold gives the British the plans to West Point.

1792 –  The National Convention declares France a republic & abolishes the absolute monarchy

1860 – Deathday of Arthur Schopenhauer, German philosopher & author

1866 – Birthday of H. G. Wells

1912 – Birthday of Chuck Jones, American animator, producer, & screenwriter

1934 – A large typhoon hits western Honshū, Japan, killing 3,036 people

1938 – The Great Hurricane of 1938 makes landfall on Long Island in New York. The death toll is estimated at 500-700 people

1942 – In Dunaivtsi, Ukraine, Nazis murder 2,588 Jews

1972 – Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos signs Proclamation № 1081, placing the entire country under martial law marking the beginning of his authoritarian rule

1976 – Orlando Letelier is assassinated in Washington, D.C. He is a member of the Chilean socialist government of Salvador Allende, overthrown in 1973 by Augusto Pinochet

1991 – Armenia is granted independence from Soviet Union

1993 – Russian President Boris Yeltsin suspends parliament & scraps the constitution, triggering the Russian constitutional crisis

Related image

1996 – The Defense of Marriage Act passes the United States Congress. The law prohibited federal recognition of same-sex marriage, while allowing states to adopt any marital definition of their choosing

1998 – Deathday of John Wood, Anthroposophical translator

1999 – Chi-Chi earthquake occurs in central Taiwan, leaving over 2,400 people dead

Greetings kindred souls – This year for the APO fund raiser I plan to hold a Dance-A-Thon & Biodynamic Prep-stir 7 pm – 9 pm on Friday 24 September 2021 at the Rudolf Steiner Branch of the Anthroposophical Society in America – Chicago

Featuring Waldorf Alum DJ ‘Grapefruit Effect’ + Circle’s Edge

It’s a potluck community gathering, so please bring food & drink to share – Along with your donation to this amazing program.

We also plan to read some poetry from some of the inmates who are working with Anthroposophy!

If you live out of town you can dance in your neck of the woods in solidarity with us. Please show your generous support…

Xox ~hag, hazel@reverseritual.com

Donate here https://secure.anthroposophy.org/…/anth…/campaign.jsp

Hazel’s Dance-a-thon page for APO

Here is an easy link to get involved in the APO Walk-a-thon this year!

Craig Wiggins

Festival Gathering: Tuesday 28 September on the eve of Michaelmas with Rev’s Jeana Lee & Victoria Capon

Potluck at 5:30
Talk at 7pm

At the Rudolf Steiner Branch, 4249 N Lincoln Ave, Chicago, IL 60618

Meeting The Dragon With Our Four Fold Being – A talk and collaborative sculptural creation

Bring Food & drink for the potluck & a found objects to help build the dragon!
Then our inspiration can come to life through our collaboration.

Jeana Lee was recently ordained as a priest of the Christian Community Movement for Religious Renewal and sent to the congregation in Chicago.  Previously she taught chemistry and math at Green Meadow Waldorf high school.  She enjoys swimming in the lake and is interested in questions of sin and redemption.

Victoria Capon hails from the east coast and is new to Chicago. Before attending seminary she taught at the Waldorf School of Cape Cod. Now she is happily settling into serving the chicago CC congregation and exploring the Windy City

Greetings friends – Come Join us in Chicago
*Special in-person activities for ‘Building the Temple of the Heart’ 
ASA Annual Conference and Members Meeting 7-10 October 2021: 

For those who are longing for a deep dive: The Applied Anthroposophy Course (AAC) brings transformative online content into the alchemy of individual and group inner work. The mission is to explore the urgent issues of our time through the lens of spiritual philosophy, awakening meaning, inner reflection, and outer action.

I will be facilitating one of the Chrysalis Groups: ‘The Cycle of the Year as a Path of Initiation into the New Mysteries’ –

The Royal Art of community awaits your participation.

See you there

~hag

Pilgrimage of the Soul

Dear Friends – As we move closer to the Autumnal Equinox & deeper into the  earnestness of the Michaelmas Season, I find that every day I am meeting with inspired happenstance leading me hither & thither on a Social Pilgrimage of the Soul – only to find yet another golden nugget, a well baked brick, for the experiential Pageant: ‘Building the Temple of the Heart – the capstone community offering for the ASA annual conference & members meeting.

Yesterday an inspiration came forth while I was thinking of what to share at the closing around the Sophia Conference in the Spring. Graced by the research muses I rediscovered this amazing Steiner quote which speaks to both conference themes:

When we are more and more able to experience the content of anthroposophy in our heart, in our feelings, then it is as if living, cosmic beings enter our souls. Then, anthroposophy will appear to us increasingly as a living being. And we will become aware that something is knocking at the threshold of our heart saying, ‘Let me in, because I am you yourself; I am your true nature, your very humanity’ ~ Rudolf Steiner, Supersensible Man, 18 November 1923, Lecture V

Dear Friends – Now more than ever we are called to join our soul forces together. I hope you will consider being part of the Conference 7-10 October. Maybe you will choose to meet with kindred souls in person in your neck of the woods, or simply join us online for a potent & festive event.

For those who are longing for a deep dive: The Applied Anthroposophy Course (AAC) brings transformative online content into the alchemy of individual and group inner work. The mission is to explore the urgent issues of our time through the lens of spiritual philosophy, awakening meaning, inner reflection, and outer action.

I will be facilitating one of the Chrysalis Groups: ‘The Cycle of the Year as a Path of Initiation into the New Mysteries’ –

The Royal Art of community awaits your participation.

See you there

~hag

17 September 2021 – “Speaking with the Stars”: The gibbous Moon hangs lower right of bright Jupiter at dusk this evening. To their right, Saturn glows dimmer in the background. Later in the night, as the sky turns, Bella Luna will come directly below Jupiter, and Saturn will move lower than both of them. That’s how you’ll find them oriented around midnight.

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

I turn to history not for lessons but to confront my experience with the experience of others and to win for myself a sense of responsibility for the state of the human conscience ~ Zbigniew Herbert

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

1179 – Deathday of Hildegard of Bingen, “the Sybil of the Rhine” a German Benedictine abbess, writer, composer, philosopher, Christian mystic, visionary, & polymath.

She is considered to be the founder of scientific natural history in Germany. One of her works as a composer, the Ordo Virtutum, is an early example of liturgical drama, the oldest surviving morality play. She wrote theological, botanical, & medicinal texts, as well as letters, liturgical songs, & poems, while supervising miniature illuminations in the Rupertsberg manuscript of her first work, Scivias.  She is also noted for the invention of a constructed language known as Lingua Ignota.

Hildegard 1st saw “The Shade of the Living Light” at the age of three. Hildegard was hesitant to share her visions, but at the age of 42, Hildegard received instruction from God, to “write down that which you see and hear.” Still hesitant to record her visions, Hildegard became physically ill. The illustrations recorded in the book of Scivias were visions that Hildegard experienced, causing her great suffering: “But I, though I saw and heard these things, refused to write for a long time through doubt and bad opinion and the diversity of human words, not with stubbornness but in the exercise of humility, until, laid low by the scourge of God, I fell upon a bed of sickness; then, compelled at last by many illnesses, and by the witness of a certain noble maiden of good conduct [the nun Richardis von Stade] I set my hand to the writing. While I was doing it, I sensed, the deep profundity of scriptural exposition; and, raising myself from illness by the strength I received, I brought this work to a close – though just barely – in ten years. (…) And I spoke and wrote these things not by the invention of my heart or that of any other person, but as by the secret mysteries of God I heard and received them in the heavenly places. And again I heard a voice from Heaven saying to me, ‘Cry out therefore, and write thus!’

Hildegard’s visions caused her to see humans as “living sparks” of God’s love.

On 17 September 1179, when Hildegard died, her sisters claimed they saw two streams of light appear in the skies & cross over the room where she was dying.

“Listen: there was once a king sitting on his throne. Around Him stood great and wonderfully beautiful columns ornamented with ivory, bearing the banners of the king with great honor. Then it pleased the king to raise a small feather from the ground, and he commanded it to fly. The feather flew, not because of anything in itself but because the air bore it along. Thus am I, a feather on the breath of God.”

1787 – The United States Constitution is signed in Philadelphia

1859 – Joshua A. Norton declares himself “Norton I, Emperor of the United States.” Born in England, Norton spent most of his early life in South Africa, he emigrated to San Francisco with an inheritance, but he lost his fortune investing in Peruvian rice & Norton’s public prominence faded. He reemerged to lay claim to the position of Emperor of the United States, & ‘Protector of Mexico’. He was treated deferentially in San Francisco, &currency issued in his name was honored in the establishments he frequented.

Though some considered him insane or eccentric, citizens of San Francisco celebrated his regal presence & his proclamations, such as his order that the United States Congress be dissolved by force & his numerous decrees calling for a bridge crossing connecting San Francisco to Oakland, &a corresponding tunnel to be built under San Francisco Bay.

At his funeral two days later, nearly 30,000 people packed the streets of San Francisco to pay homage. Norton has been immortalized as the basis of characters in the literature of writers Mark Twain, Robert Louis Stevenson, Christopher Moore, Maurice De Bevere, Selma Lagerlöf, & Neil Gaiman

1908 – The Wright Flyer flown by Orville Wright, with Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge as passenger, crashes, killing Selfridge. He becomes the first airplane fatality

1916 –Manfred von Richthofen (“The Red Baron“), a flying ace of the German Luftstreitkräfte, wins his first aerial combat near Cambrai, France, in World War I

1928 – The Okeechobee hurricane strikes southeastern Florida, killing more than 2,500 people. It is the third deadliest natural disaster in United States history, behind the Galveston hurricane of 1900 & the 1906 San Francisco earthquake

1939 –The Soviet Union joins Nazi Germany’s invasion of Poland in World War II

1939 –German submarine U-29 sinks the British aircraft carrier HMS Courageous in World War II

1961 – Deathday of Dag Hammarskjöld, Swedish diplomat, economist, author & the second secretary-general of the United Nations. Soon after his appointment Hammarskjöld was interviewed on radio by Edward R. Murrow. In this talk he declared: “But the explanation of how man should live a life of active social service in full harmony with himself as a member of the community of spirit, I found in the writings of those great medieval mystics [Meister Eckhart and Jan van Ruysbroek] for whom ‘self-surrender’ had been the way to self-realization, and who in ‘singleness of mind’ and ‘inwardness’ had found strength to say yes to every demand which the needs of their neighbours made them face, and to say yes also to every fate life had in store for them when they followed the call of duty as they understood it.”

He was en route to negotiate a cease-fire on 18 September when his plane crashed near Ndola, Northern Rhodesia. Hammarskjöld & fifteen others died in the crash. The circumstances of the incident are still not clear. There is some evidence that suggests the plane was shot down. Göran Björkdahl (a Swedish aid worker) wrote in 2011 that he believed Dag Hammarskjöld’s 1961 death was a murder committed in part to benefit mining companies like Union Minière, after Hammarskjöld had made the UN intervene in the Katanga crisis. Björkdahl based his assertion on interviews with witnesses of the plane crash & on archival documents. Former U.S. President Harry Truman commented that Hammarskjöld “was on the point of getting something done when they killed him. Notice that I said ‘when they killed him’.”

s

1978 – The Camp David Accords brokered by President Jimmy Carter, is signed by Egyptian President Anwar El Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin

2001 – The New York Stock Exchange reopens for trading after the September 11 attacks, the longest closure since the Great Depression

2006 – Fourpeaked Mountain in Alaska erupts, marking the first eruption for the long-dormant volcano in at least 10,000 years

2011 – Occupy Wall Street movement begins in Zuccotti Park, New York City

Greetings kindred souls – This year for the APO fund raiser I plan to hold a Dance-A-Thon & Biodynamic Prep-stir on Friday 24 September 2021 at the Rudolf Steiner Branch of the Anthroposophical Society in America – Chicago

Featuring Waldorf Alum DJ ‘Grapefruit Effect’ + Circle’s Edge

It’s a potluck community gathering, so please bring food & drink to share – Along with your donation to this amazing program.

We also plan to read some poetry from some of the inmates who are working with Anthroposophy!

If you live out of town you can dance in your neck of the woods in solidarity with us. Please show your generous support…

Xox ~hag, hazel@reverseritual.com

Donate here https://secure.anthroposophy.org/…/anth…/campaign.jsp

Hazel’s Dance-a-thon page for APO

Here is an easy link to get involved in the APO Walk-a-thon this year!

Craig Wiggins

Festival Gathering: Tuesday 28 September on the eve of Michaelmas with Rev’s Jeana Lee & Victoria Capon

Potluck at 5:30
Talk at 7pm

At the Rudolf Steiner Branch, 4249 N Lincoln Ave, Chicago, IL 60618

Meeting The Dragon With Our Four Fold Being – A talk and collaborative sculptural creation

Bring Food & drink for the potluck & a found objects to help build the dragon!
Then our inspiration can come to life through our collaboration.

Jeana Lee was recently ordained as a priest of the Christian Community Movement for Religious Renewal and sent to the congregation in Chicago.  Previously she taught chemistry and math at Green Meadow Waldorf high school.  She enjoys swimming in the lake and is interested in questions of sin and redemption.

Victoria Capon hails from the east coast and is new to Chicago. Before attending seminary she taught at the Waldorf School of Cape Cod. Now she is happily settling into serving the chicago CC congregation and exploring the Windy City

Greetings friends – Come Join us in Chicago
*Special in-person activities for ‘Building the Temple of the Heart’ 
ASA Annual Conference and Members Meeting 7-10 October 2021: 

THURSDAY, October 7 – CENTRAL TIME 
(*For those in the pageant: Tech rehearsal – 3 pm)
*5 pm Dinner in the RS Branch ‘Schreinerei’
(Meal plan menu coming soon – Sign up now so we know how much food we need!)

6:30- 8:00 PM    Annual General Meeting (AGM) – Members Meeting 
                          (Note: This portion is free and open to all members) 

FRIDAY, October 8 – CENTRAL TIME 
*9:30 AM            In the Upper Room our Class Reader Clark Remington    
                           will give Lesson XI for the School of Spiritual Science
  (Note: There will be no online gathering for the Class Lesson
11:30 AM           What is the School of Spiritual Science?  
                           A conversation led by Helen-Ann Ireland, open to all 
                           (30 min) 
*12 Noon            LUNCH in the RS Branch ‘Schreinerei’
1:00 PM             Conference Opening                                    
2:00 PM             The Stairway of Surprise: Rudolf Steiner’s 6 Basic  
                           Exercises with Michael Lipson     
3:00 PM             30-minute Snack Break in the RS Branch ‘Schreinerei’
3:30 PM             Thinking / Clear Thinking with the New Orleans Hub
                           Doing / Right Action with the Austin Hub                  
                           Musical Interludes by Morgan Vallat
4:30 PM             Biography with Janey Newton
5:00 PM             60-minute Break *DINNER in the RS Branch ‘Schreinerei’
6:00 PM             Singing, Speech & Eurythmy
                           with Dennis Dietzel, Katherine Thivierge & Mary Ruud 
6:15 – 7:15 PM  Building the Temple through Spiritual Research:
Sections of the School of Spiritual Science as Columns of the Temple 

SATURDAY, October 9  – CENTRAL TIME 
(*For those in the pageant: Tech rehearsal – 9 am)

11:00 AM         Singing, Speech & Eurythmy 
                         with Dennis Dietzel, Katherine Thivierge & Mary Ruud 
11:15 AM         The Life of the Heart in Space, Time and Eternity with  
                         Michaela Glöckler
12:30 PM         Biography with Janey Newton 
1:00 PM           60-minute Break *LUNCH in the RS Branch ‘Schreinerei’
2:00  PM          Singing, Speech & Eurythmy 
                        with Dennis Dietzel, Katherine Thivierge & Mary Ruud 
2:15 PM           Feeling / Equanimity with the Twin Cities Hub  
                         Loving / Positivity with the Northern Michigan Hub 
                         Opening / Open-mindedness with the Ann Arbor Hub  
                         Musical Interludes by Morgan Vallat
3:30 PM           60-minute Snack Break in the RS Branch ‘Schreinerei’
4:30 PM           Exploring the Heart Connections between Chartres  
                        Cathedral and Wolfram von Eschenbach’s Parzival with  
                        Brian Gray
5:45 PM           Biography with Janey Newton 
6:15 PM           60-minute Break *DINNER in the RS Branch ‘Schreinerei’
7:15-8:30 PM   Thanking / Inner Harmony / Wholeness with the Chicago /
                         Youth Section Hub 

SUNDAY, October 10  – CENTRAL TIME 
(*For those in the Pageant- Please wear all Black, or all white – Run Through – 9 am)
11:00 AM         Singing, Speech & Eurythmy 
                        with Dennis Dietzel, Katherine Thivierge & Mary Ruud 
11:15 AM         Experiential Pageant: ‘Building the Temple of the Heart- 
                        The Royal Art: A Social Pilgrimage of the Soul’
                        by Hazel Archer featuring the 6 HUBS, Friends and Hosts, 
                        Dennis Dietzel, Mary Ruud, Katherine Thivierge & YOU
12:15 PM       (Timing Subject to change) LUNCH in the RS Branch ‘Schreinerei’
1:00-2:00 PM   Conversation and Conference Closing

The Subtle & Sublime

Tashina Suzuki

Last evening when the Sun was setting on the heat of the day, softening the oblique spear of light; a coolness wafted thru the bean plants & the sprawling pumpkin patch in our backyard. It was then that I saw Her.

The Sun in Virgo – the Virgin Mother holding a sheaf of wheat like a secret in her heart.
I stood with Her in that luminous space in Nature between the dense & the subtle.

Salvador Dali


I held my mind out in reverence, wondering: When does the subtle become physical? Where is it, this ineffable space, where one fades into the other? – When the subtle becomes heavy, when the etheric becomes matter?

Jeanie Southworth


This gesture – so delicate & quick, often veiled – enigmatic & challenging; a fleeting moment, eternal in its becoming – It is the womb of possibility, holding the mysteries of substance & transubstantiation.

Salventor Pellwers

It can also be the place where we fall – the error of the missed target – The overlooked opportunity – The grasping clench…

There, at the abyss – at this sacred threshold – a Goddess dwells, who holds out her hand to us. The Divine Feminine Spirit of a gentle Alchemy, awaits our response.

~hag

Moon over Antares and Scorpius, Sept. 12-13, 2021

13 September 2021 – “Speaking with the Stars”: First-quarter Moon shining in the feet of Ophiuchus. Bella Luna is midway between Antares & the Sagittarius Teapot. Look soon after twilight ends, before they sink lower.

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

by Zak D. Parsons

Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves. ~ Carl Jung

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Dejah Hilliard

Birthday of Hector, who Rudolf Steiner said was a living individual, later to be incarnated as Hamlet (See GA139 / 15.9.12)

Consider one of his characters, Hector. If you have any time available, you ought to study the figure of Hector in the Iliad — how plastically he is described so that he stands as a complete personality before us; how we see his affection for his paternal city, Troy, his wife Andromache, his relationship to Achilles, and to his armies; and how he commanded them. Try to call up this man before your minds, this man who possessed all the tenderness of a husband, and who clung in the ancient way to his home city of Troy, and who suffered such disillusions as only really great men can. Remember his relation with Achilles. Hector, as presented by Homer, is a towering figure from very ancient times, a man of great all-embracing humanity, for of course what Homer is describing belongs to a period well before his own, in the darkness of the past. Hector stands out above all the others, all those figures who seem mythical enough in the eyes of modern men.

Now take this one figure. Skeptics and all kinds of philologists may indeed doubt that there ever was a Hector at all, in the same way as they doubt the existence of Homer. But anyone who takes into consideration what may be understood from a purely human viewpoint will be convinced that Homer describes only facts that actually occurred. Hector was a living person who strode through Troy, and Achilles and the other figures were equally real. They still stand before us as personages of real earthly life. We look back to them as people of a different kind from ourselves, who are difficult to understand but whom the poet is able to bring before our souls in every detail. Now let us place before our souls a figure such as Hector, one of the chief Trojan commanders, who is defeated by Achilles. In such a personage we have something that belongs to the old pre-Christian age, something by which we can measure what men were before the time when Christ lived on earth..

I cannot go into everything underlying the historical prototype of the poetical figure of Hamlet, but through the research of spiritual science, I can offer you a striking example of how a man, a spirit of ancient times, reappears in the post-Christian era. The real figure underlying Hamlet, as presented by Shakespeare, is Hector. The same soul that lived in Hamlet lived in Hector. It is just by such a characteristic example as this, and the striking way the two different souls manifest themselves, that we can interpret what happened in the intervening time. A personality such as that of Hector stands before us in the pre-Christian age. Then comes the intervention of the Mystery of Golgotha in human evolution, and the spark it kindled in Hector’s soul causes a figure, a prototype of Hamlet, to arise, of whom Goethe said, “This is a soul that is unable to deal with any situation and is not equal to its position, who is assigned tasks but is unable to fulfill them.” ~Rudolf Steiner

st-john-chrysostom

*Feast of St. John Chrysostom*

Christine Shields

The bee is more honored than other animals, not because she labors, but because she labors for others. ~Saint John Chrysostom

st-john-chrysostom-christ

(The name JOHN is an initiatory title, used not in the personal sense, but as a way to designate the True Human Being, & CHRYSOSTOM = Golden-Throat or Honeyed lips)John Chrysostom’s preaching, by word & example, epitomizes the role of the prophet to comfort the afflicted & to afflict the comfortable. For his honesty & courage he paid the price of a turbulent ministry as bishop, personal vilification & exile.

There is much intrigue surrounding this great preacher from Antioch. Brought to Constantinople after a dozen years of priestly service in Syria, John found himself the reluctant victim of an imperial ruse to make him bishop in the greatest city of the empire. Ascetic, unimposing, dignified, yet troubled by stomach ailments from his desert days as a monk, John became a bishop under the cloud of imperial politics.

If his body was weak, his tongue was powerful. The content of his sermons, his exegesis of Scripture, were never without an exquisite exclamation point. Sometimes the point stung the high & mighty. Some sermons lasted up to two hours.

His lifestyle at the imperial court was not appreciated by many courtiers. He offered a modest table to episcopal sycophants hanging around for imperial & ecclesiastical favors. John deplored the court protocol that accorded him precedence before the highest state officials. He would not be a kept man. His zeal led him to decisive action. Bishops who bribed their way into office were deposed.

Many of his sermons called for concrete steps to share wealth with the poor.

The rich did not appreciate hearing from John that private property existed because of Adam’s fall from grace any more than married men liked to hear that they were bound to marital fidelity just as much as their wives were. When it came to justice & charity, John acknowledged no double standards.

Aloof, energetic, outspoken, especially when he became excited in the pulpit, John was a sure target for criticism & personal trouble. He was accused of gorging himself secretly on rich wines & fine foods, & yet he was as skinny as a stick. Also his faithfulness as spiritual director to the rich widow, Olympia, provoked much gossip attempting to prove him a hypocrite where wealth & chastity were concerned. His actions taken against unworthy bishops in Asia Minor were viewed by other ecclesiastics as a greedy, uncanonical extension of his authority.

Theophilus, archbishop of Alexandria, & Empress Eudoxia were determined to discredit John. Theophilus feared the growth in importance of the Bishop of Constantinople & took occasion to charge John with fostering heresy. Theophilus & other angered bishops were supported by Eudoxia. The empress resented his sermons contrasting gospel values with the excesses of imperial court life. Whether intended or not, sermons mentioning the lurid Jezebel (1 Kings 9:1—21:23) & impious Herodias (Mark 6:17-29) were associated with the empress, who finally did manage to have John exiled. He died in exile in 407.

Open thou my mouth, that I may sing forth thy praises

Greetings kindred souls – This year for the APO fund raiser I plan to hold a Dance-A-Thon & Biodynamic Prep-stir on Friday 24 September 2021 at the Rudolf Steiner Branch of the Anthroposophical Society in America – Chicago

Featuring Waldorf Alum DJ ‘Grapefruit Effect’ + Circle’s Edge

It’s a potluck community gathering, so please bring food & drink to share – Along with your donation to this amazing program.

We also plan to read some poetry from some of the inmates who are working with Anthroposophy!

If you live out of town you can dance in your neck of the woods in solidarity with us. Please show your generous support…

Xox ~hag, hazel@reverseritual.com

Donate here https://secure.anthroposophy.org/…/anth…/campaign.jsp…

Craig Wiggins

Festival Gathering: Tuesday 28 September on the eve of Michaelmas with Rev’s Jeana Lee & Victoria Capon

Potluck at 5:30
Talk at 7pm

At the Rudolf Steiner Branch, 4249 N Lincoln Ave, Chicago, IL 60618

Meeting The Dragon With Our Four Fold Being – A talk and collaborative sculptural creation

Bring Food & drink for the potluck & a found objects to help build the dragon!
Then our inspiration can come to life through our collaboration.

Jeana Lee was recently ordained as a priest of the Christian Community Movement for Religious Renewal and sent to the congregation in Chicago.  Previously she taught chemistry and math at Green Meadow Waldorf high school.  She enjoys swimming in the lake and is interested in questions of sin and redemption.

Victoria Capon hails from the east coast and is new to Chicago. Before attending seminary she taught at the Waldorf School of Cape Cod. Now she is happily settling into serving the chicago CC congregation and exploring the Windy City

‘Building the Temple of the Heart’ 
ASA Annual Conference and Members Meeting 7-10 October 2021: