Category Archives: Speaking with the Stars

Social Understanding, Liberty of Thought, Knowledge of the Spirit

Festival, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Speaking with the Stars
The light in the soul Painting by Chirila Corina
Chirila Corina

‘I Think Speech’ podcast

Dear friends – Many a day I am staring at the white page asking the spiritual world what wants to be said in the moment. And I am constantly in a state of awe as to the synchronicities which bring the ever relevant wisdom from our Dear Dr. Steiner into the present need. This lecture ‘How Can the Destitution of Soul in Modern Times Be Overcome? Social Understanding, Liberty of Thought, Knowledge of the Spirit’, by Rudolf Steiner given in Zurich, October 10th, 1916, GA 168, is so pertinent & right on, it is meant to be read by us today. I have trimmed it, so if you have time, go & read the whole thing on the archives. It’s still quite lengthy here, but every word rings true. (The juiciest bits are emboldened have a *** next to the paragraph to draw your attention)Dig in dear ones, this is our work:

“As the fifth post-Atlantean epoch continues it will become increasingly difficult to bring ourselves into a right relationship with others, because this demands inner development, inner activity. How hard it is already in this present time for people drawn together by karma to understand each other.

The fifth post-Atlantean epoch requires of us that we should not dream our lives away in the dark, nor close our eyes to the condition of evolution, because this is an absolutely necessary condition. If the difficulty of coming to mutual understanding were not hanging over fifth post-Atlantean humanity, the cultivation of individuality — which belongs to the consciousness soul — would not be able to develop either. This must take place. Humanity will have to undergo this test.

Nevertheless, if only this negative aspect of evolutionary conditions in the fifth post-Atlantean period were to prevail, war and strife would inevitably arise, and find their way into even our most intimate concerns. I need only say – more and more conscious interest will have to be felt for SOCIAL UNDERSTANDING.

What have we had up to now in the shape of social understanding? All kinds of abstract ideals, concerned with national welfare and human happiness, have made their appearance. What in the first place is important is not to found sects and societies with fixed programmes. Practical knowledge of humanity, practical, effectual interest in humanity, this is what counts. For how do we judge a person whom we meet nowadays? As being agreeable to us, or the reverse. We make for ourselves an idea of what someone should be, and when we find that they differ from it we criticise. No progress will be made towards a true practical understanding of humanity until we do away with these prejudices and fancies for this person or that, and make up our minds to take people as they are.

How often, when two people meet for the first time, one of them arouses instantaneous antipathy in the other, whom he dislikes so much that afterwards whatever they have to do with each other is coloured by this dislike. As a consequence the karmic connection between them can be entirely blotted out, or set on a false track, and will have to be laid aside until the two meet again in their next incarnation. Sympathy and antipathy are the greatest enemies of true social interests, though only too little heed is paid to the fact.

Understanding for spiritual science would cause practical knowledge of the human soul to become matters of general interest. This is a necessity for social understanding if it is, to some extent, to create the opposite pole to the difficulty of understanding one another. Humanity must go through trials and provings, for the opposing forces set snares in our way. And accordingly feelings of sympathy and antipathy will be widespread, and it is only by consciously combating these superficial feelings that we shall bring the consciousness soul safely to birth.

Social understanding between people will also be more and more powerfully opposed by national sympathies and antipathies, they are fearful testings for humankind. Were they to gain the upper hand, we should dream away the development of the consciousness soul, because nationalism works in the opposite direction, and stands in the way of man’s independence by tending to make of him a mere reflection of this or that national group.

And further to this development: if as individualism increases religion does not adapt itself to the needs of the fifth post-Atlantean epoch, but remains as it was suitable for the fourth post-Atlantean period, a certain drying up of the religious life must take place. In the fifth period Christ is actually entering the individual soul. Already, unconsciously or subconsciously, we all carry Christ within us. But this will not come from the imposing of fixed dogmas, only from doing all we can to further what will make Christ universally comprehensible, to further the spread of universal religious knowledge in general. The need for more and more tolerance, particularly where thought in connection with religious experience is concerned. We must try to make the essential nature of the different religions intelligible, to make clear different aspects of the Christ-conception. In this way we bring to every soul what it requires for its particular deepening. But we do not ourselves intervene in the moulding of the soul; we leave the soul, especially in the sphere of religion, its own liberty of thinking and scope to unfold this liberty.

Just as social understanding is necessary for the fifth post-Atlantean period at the point I have described, so is liberty of thought on religious grounds a fundamental condition for the development of the consciousness soul.

SOCIAL UNDERSTANDING IN THE SPHERE OF HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS.

LIBERTY OF THOUGHT IN THE SPHERE OF RELIGION — of the religious life.

In this very age of the consciousness soul, the ahrimanic powers are most fiercely renewing their attack upon liberty of thought — the nerve and sinew in the stream of the spiritual scientific conception of life. And in the age which prompted by modern life feels the first stirrings of a need to think freely, we find the opposing power at work in the so-called Jesuitism of the different religions. It is actually brought to life in order that the strongest possible resistance may be offered to liberty of thought, so vital a necessity for the fifth post-Atlantean period. It will become more and more necessary to exterminate Jesuitism, the enemy in the fifth post-Atlantean epoch of free thinking, because from religion outwards liberty of thought must spread over every sphere of life. But as it must be striven for independently, humankind is put, as it were, to the proof, and difficulties spring up everywhere. These difficulties will increase as people of the fifth post-Atlantean epoch advance towards clear consciousness, yet feeling this at first to be a disadvantage, and in many respects stupefying themselves.

***So we find the clash of sharp conflict between germinating liberty of thought and the principle of authority which works into our times like a hang-over from the past. And there is a passion for dulling the consciousness and for self-deception where belief in authority is concerned. In our time putting faith in authority has become so great and so intensified that under its influence people are losing their power of judgment. We are becoming bound hand and foot to our belief in authority, with no wish to acquire discernment for healthy conditions of living. Above all we must realise that whole theories are being built up which in their turn will become the basis of convictions only serving to uphold belief in authority.

***In medicine, in law and in every other sphere people declare themselves from the outset incompetent to judge, and accept what science tells them. The complications of modern life make this understandable. But under the pressure of authority we shall become more and more helpless. And systematically to build up this force of authority, this habit of authority, is actually the principle of Jesuitism transferring itself to other spheres of life. We already find it in medical circles where a certain dogmatism strives after more power for the medical profession. This is typical of Jesuitical aspiration everywhere; and it will grow stronger and stronger.

***People will find themselves more and more tied down by what authority imposes upon them. And in face of this ahrimanic opposition — for such it is — salvation for the fifth post-Atlantean epoch will be found in asserting the rights of the consciousness soul which is wishing to develop. The development of the consciousness soul demands liberty of thought.

We see what tremendous and growing opposition there is to social understanding and liberty of thought. But this opposition is not acknowledged to be such; it is looked upon in the most extensive circles as right and proper, as something in no way to be condemned but on the contrary most carefully to be fostered.

There are, however, a great many people whose sincerity and clear vision make them fully aware of what dangers modern man is exposed to and who have a keen sense for what is already plain to see. There are already a sufficient number of people who realise that these necessary conditions can work for good only when they are faced with the understanding which rises from the very life of the heart. For the impulse for this new world-working must be consciously wrung out of the heart’s blood. What comes too easily brings estrangement between individuals. Every single soul has difficulties to encounter in the fifth post-Atlantean epoch because the consciousness soul can develop only through the testing occasioned by the overcoming of these difficulties.

***How often nowadays one hears: “I don’t know what to do with myself, I don’t know how to organise my life.” This comes from inability to see clearly what the needs of the present time are, and what the human beings position is with regard to them. Many people are reduced by existing conditions to physical illness, physical strain and loss of balance. And a real understanding for this must be more and more intensively cultivated because what threatens us, and is at the same time a necessity for the fifth post-Atlantean epoch, is the danger of DESTITUTION OF SOUL.

Many people see what this means and feel how necessary it is that we should come to social understanding on the one hand and liberty of thought on the other. But today very few are inclined to make use of the right means to this end. For social understanding, what would be necessary to achieve it, is only too often served by a hodge-podge of high-sounding phrases. The theoretical programme is the enemy of the fifth post-Atlantean epoch of culture. At present, what is the usual procedure? It begins with a drawing up of rules which at present puts everything into sections and regulations as if into a straight jacket. But what concerns us must be the life in common as individuals, what issues from actual human beings; that reciprocal understanding is what counts.

It stands to reason that to what has been said the following objections would be justified: “Yes, indeed — but we are not qualified to pronounce an opinion upon what experts nowadays officially give out. Only consider” — it might be objected — “what the medical student has to learn! That he should learn it is right and proper, but we could not; and then add to this what the lawyer must know, and the art student, and so on.” —

***Yes, we must allow the expert to create, but we must be able to criticise the expert. And this faculty of judgment we shall not acquire by specialising, but only by cultivating in an all-round way our powers of understanding and our faculty of judgment. This, however, can never come about through expert knowledge in some particular branch of science, but only through the all-embracing knowledge of the Spirit.

***Spiritual science must be the centre around which all the sciences revolve; for it not only throws light upon the connections in human evolution, but the way of thinking peculiar to it develops in us sound understanding. The construction of concepts and representations necessary for spiritual science, and peculiar to it, does not qualify us to become experts in any particular sphere, but it gives us the power of judging. And the reason for this will become more and more plain to see. There are mysterious forces in the human soul, and these forces, these mystery forces, will link the human soul with the spiritual world, and through our participation in spiritual science this link will enable us to use our judgment when we stand in the presence of authority. We shall be able to form our own judgment about it.

***Emphasis must be laid upon the fact that spiritual science not only teaches us but in this connection develops our faculty of judgment — that is to say, it makes possible and fosters the freedom and independence of our thinking. Spiritual science may not qualify us to enter the medical profession, but if we can penetrate to its reality it makes us capable of forming a right judgment upon the results of medicine in public life. Spiritual science will, remodel the human Intellect in such a way that man’s critical faculty may be able to unfold itself, and in releasing his intellectual life from the life of his soul he may be able to develop true liberty of thought.

…human beings on earth in their physical bodies should live with the Christ-thought in such a way that it can shine upwards as a light to the Angels — since the Mystery of Golgotha — shine up to the Angels as a light. The human beings says: Christ has entered into us, and we can develop in such a way that He will be able to dwell in us — “not I, but Christ in me.” The Angels say: Christ has gone from the sphere of our inner life, and He shines up to us now like so many stars in the Christ-thought of individual human beings; He shines up to us since the Mystery of Golgotha, and there we find Him again. There is a real connection between the spiritual world and the human world. And this is also shown by the fact that the spiritual beings who apart from ourselves inhabit the spiritual world look with satisfaction and approval upon our thoughts about their world. They can help us only if we think about them; and although we may not have attained to clairvoyant vision into the spiritual world, if we know about these spiritual beings they can help us. In return for our study of spiritual science help comes to us from the spiritual world. It is not merely the things we learn, the knowledge we acquire, it is the beings of the higher Hierarchies themselves who help us when we know about them.

***And if in future, as the fifth post-Atlantean epoch proceeds, we face the authority of the expert, it will be good to have behind us not only our own human understanding but also what the spiritual beings are able to weave into it through our knowing about them. They qualify us to confront authority with sound judgment. The spiritual world helps us. We have need of it, we must know about it, and unite ourselves with it through conscious understanding. This is the third thing which must come to pass in the fifth post-Atlantean period.

***The first is: RECIPROCAL UNDERSTANDING IN SOCIAL LIFE.

***The second: THE ACQUIRING OF FREEDOM OF THOUGHT.

***The third: LIVING KNOWLEDGE OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLDS THROUGH SPIRITUAL SCIENCE.

These three things must be the great true ideals of the fifth post-Atlantean epoch. We must have reciprocal understanding in the social sphere, liberty of thought in religion and in the other branches of community life; and in the sphere of knowledge we must have knowledge of the spiritual worlds.

***SOCIAL UNDERSTANDING, LIBERTY OF THOUGHT, KNOWLEDGE OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLDS. These are the three great aims and impulses of the fifth post-Atlantean period. In the light of these impulses we must develop, for they are the true lights of our time. In this sense the three great concrete social ideals and ideals of cognition will enable the consciousness soul in the fifth post-Atlantean period to understand the Mystery of Golgotha, and to receive Christ in a new way. For we forge a real link with the spiritual worlds by learning to know how these worlds also stand to the central impulse of earth evolution, to the Christ impulse. The Christ impulse will become our real link with the spiritual worlds under the influence of the thoughts which stream from them earthwards, and which we offer up again in our thinking about Christ; because in earth existence since the Mystery of Golgotha the thoughts of human souls shine upwards consolingly like bright stars, as I have described, even to the world of the angels who lost Christ from their sphere in order that they might find Him again shining up to them from the sphere of human thinking.

~Rudolf Steiner, How Can the Destitution of Soul in Modern Times Be Overcome?
Social Understanding, Liberty of Thought, Knowledge of the Spirit 10/10/1916. Zurich

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5 May 2021 – “Speaking with the Stars”: You can thank Halley’s Comet for this meteor shower! Even though this comet was last seen in the sky in 1986, the debris cloud left behind causes the Eta Aquariid Meteor Shower. To spot meteors streaking across the sky, look towards the constellation Aquarius before sunrise on 5/5 & 6th.

Waning moon goes by the planets Saturn and Jupiter in the predawn/dawn sky.
The Karma Project – Manifestations of Karma Study Group
May 5, 2021 – 7:15 pm Central (8:15 pm Eastern)

“This is the other aspect of the karma of higher beings — that we develop a power of love which is not confined to humanity alone but which penetrates right into the cosmos. We shall be able to channel this love into beings higher than ourselves, and they will accept this as our offering. It will be a soul sacrifice. This sacrifice in soul will rise up to those who once poured their gifts upon us like the smoke of incense rising up to the spirits in times when human beings still possessed the gifts of the spirit. In those days they were only able to send up the symbolic smoke of sacrifice to the gods. In times to come they will send up streams of love to the spirits and out of this offering of love higher forces will pour down to humankind, which will work, with ever-increasing power, in our physical world, directed by the spiritual world. These will be magical forces in the true sense.“~Rudolf Steiner, Manifestations of Karma, Chapter 11, “Individual Karma and Shared Karma”, Hamburg, 28 May, 1910 … focus of the May 5 meeting.

The lecture can be found online at the RS Archive (eLib) by clicking this link: https://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA120/English/RSP1984/19100528p01.htmlThe Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society in America invites you to join our ongoing  study conversation.  The study has been divided among four 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: “Manifestations of Karma.”  This book is a translation from German of Die Offenbarung des Karma (Ga 120), published in English by Rudolf Steiner Press in 1996.

Video Conference Details:
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81210110113

Meeting ID: 812 1011 0113

Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kdBJRUquk5

If you have questions, please contact Alberto Loya aloyavaca@utexas.edu
Agenda for our Study Call
 
7:15  Welcome and Introductions        
7:18  Verse
7:25  Study led by three volunteers
Note: CRC team will ID volunteers
          Camille – pg. 202 to 207
          Travis – pg. 207 to 212
          Mary – pg. 212 to 218
          Hazel – pg. 218 to end
8:05  Conversation
8:28  Close with verseDestiny

I bear within me what has Been
I feel within me what is Becoming
In willing, I carry both toward the Future
 Faith looks upon what has Been
And is founded upon Truth
 Trust looks upon what will be
And is founded upon Hope
 Love Embraces Here and Now
Eternal Becoming
Eternal Being
~Rudolf Steiner

Living into the Spheres of Cosmic Life and Cosmic Light: Easter, Ascension, Whitsun in the Calendar of the Soul  with Luigi Morelli, Hazel Archer and Geoff Norris – Zoom Host Frank Agrama

13 May 2021 Ascension Thursday 5- 6:30pm PT / 6-7:30 pm MT / 7 pm – 8:30 pm CT / 8-9:30 pm ET / 1 am – 2:30 am GMT / 2 am – 3:30 am CET

Join Zoom meeting: https://zoom.us/j/7052931041?pwd=TStPVnpFRzlwZ0NpRURBZDNyYnpBQT09 

Meeting ID: 705 293 1041 – Passcode: Ascension

Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/a961qZZhF

Welcome – Frank Agrama

Verse #6 – Geoff Norris

Ascension: The Secret Teachings, The Elementals, & The Etheric Christ – Hazel Archer

Calendar of the Soul – Luigi Morelli

For those who are familiar with the Calendar of the Soul we could say that during spring and summer we follow the ascent of cosmic life, cosmic light, cosmic warmth and cosmic Word as gifts bestowed upon the human being by the cosmos. By being receptive to them we strengthen our connection to cosmos and Self.

We will briefly explore the dynamics of the year, then look at what qualities of soul we need to develop as we move into spring and summer, most particularly from Easter to Ascension and Whitsun. We will look at the verses of the calendar in conjunction with the artistic renditions of Anne Stockton and Karl König, drawn for each of the verses.

We will ask ourselves: How can we live into and grow from this time of the year? How can we deepen our inner relationship to the event of Ascension? What can we receive and what can we give?

Break-out Groups

Group Speech Work with Geoff Norris

“Angels, in the early morning
May be seen the Dews among,
Stooping — plucking — smiling — flying —
Do the Buds to them belong?”
~Emily Dickenson

Closing Thoughts – Hazel Archer

***

Holy Grail - Wikipedia

Sangraal: A Pentecost Pilgrimage & Whitsun Festival with the Central Regional Council an experiential ‘Pageant’ written by Hazel Archer, taking us on a Quest from The Cauldron of Ceridwen, to The Holy Grail, & into The Sacred Vessel of the Sophia.

with Special Guests: Eurythmist Elizabeth Carlson, & Music with Ultra-Violet Archer & Lucien Dante Lazar

Join us on Whitsunday 23 May 2021, at 11 am PT / 12 noon MT / 1 pm – 2:30 pm CT / 2 pm ET / 8 pm CET

Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81181550712 Meeting ID: 811 8155 0712

Dial by your location  
Meeting ID: 811 8155 0712
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kBw1EgrIR

Bio – Elizabeth Carlson – I was born and grew up in upstate [Woodstock] New York. I completed the eurythmy training at Eurythmy School Zuccoli in Dornach, age 24, and studied again later at Eurythmeum Stuttgart for two years. I have worked in Waldorf education since, in eurythmy, (in USA, SA and UK) for 16 yrs, in Early Years for five years, and intermittently in care for the elderly and learning disabled. I completed an MA in eurythmy (education) with Alanus University (Germany, but in the UK)  in 2016. I have lived in the UK, presently in Cardiff, Wales, since 1992. My son is 26.

Music by Ultra-Violet Archer – Here’s her solo stuff https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkdsh6zXYxE74LLlDiBE3uQ

The discography https://soundcloud.com/ultra-violet-archer

Bandcamp has all the lyrics & you can ‘buy’ the album to show support for ‘In Case of Emergence’ by ‘Circles Edge’ her new band with her boyfriend Morgen Vallet  https://circlesedge.bandcamp.com/album/in-case-of-emergence

After working with Karma & Reincarnation for 3 years the CRC has chosen a new Theme: ‘The Mysteries of the Holy Grail, from Arthur and Parzival to Modern Initiation’

The Mysteries of the Holy Grail: From Arthur and Parzival to Modern Initiation: Steiner, Rudolf, Barton, Matthew: 9781855842342: Amazon.com: Books

You are also invited to get the Book & Join us for study sessions through out the year as well. contact Alberto Loya aloyavaca@utexas.edu for more info.

“Humanity is a comic role. ” ~Novalis

Poetry, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Speaking with the Stars

‘I Think Speech’ podcast

Eternal Individuality Towards a Karmic Biography of Novalis Prokofieff Sergei o. | eBay

RUDOLF STEINER’S CALENDAR OF THE SOUL
translated (with added titles) by Roy Sadler
EASTERTIDE V
The Resurrection of the Soul
v5
In light, whose fertile weaving into space
from depths of spirit is revealing
the gods’ creating,
the being of the soul is shining, widening,
enlivened in the presence of the world
and resurrected
from narrow selfhood’s inner power.

Waning Moon passing under Saturn and Jupiter, May 3-5, 2021
skyandtelescope.org

2 May 2021 – “Speaking with the Stars:” In the early dawn of Monday morning May 3, spot Saturn with the almost last-quarter Moon -Jupiter looks on from their left.

TOP 25 QUOTES BY NOVALIS (of 112) | A-Z Quotes

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day (so thankful for rsarchive.org/)

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY (From the Calendar of the Soul by Rudolf Steiner & Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Is this Leonardo da Vinci's earliest surviving work? Self-portrait as Archangel Gabriel unveiled | Daily Mail Online

1519 – Death Day of Leonardo da Vinci, Italian painter, sculptor, & architect. “…We know how Leonardo worked at the “Last Supper”. He often went and sat on the scaffolding and brooded for hours in front of the wall, then he would take a brush and make a few strokes and go away again. Sometimes he only went and stared at the picture and went away again. When he was painting the Christ Figure, his hand trembled. Indeed, if we put together all that we can find concerning this subject we must say that neither outwardly nor inwardly was Leonardo happy when painting this world-renowned picture. Now there were people at that time in Milan who were displeased with the slow progress of the picture, for instance a Prior of the monastery, who could not see why an artist could not paint such a picture quickly, and complained to the Duke. He too thought the affair had lasted too long. Leonardo answered: “The picture is to represent Jesus Christ and Judas, the two greatest contrasts; one cannot paint them in one year; there are no models for them in the world, neither for Judas nor for Christ”. After he had been working at the picture for years, he said he did not know whether he could finish it after all! Then he said that if finally he found no model for Judas he could always use the Prior himself! It was thus extraordinarily difficult to bring the picture to a conclusion but within himself Leonardo did not feel happy. For this picture showed the contrast between what lived in his soul and what he was able to represent on the canvas. Here it is necessary to bring forward a hypothesis of Spiritual Science, which may be reached by anyone who studies what can by degrees be learned about this picture.” ~Rudolf Steiner, Leonardo da Vinci, His Spiritual and Intellectual Greatness, At the Turning Point of the New Age

Image result for 1611 – The King James Version of the Bible is published

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

Image result for Catherine the Great of Russia

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

Image result for Novalis

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

File:Novalis.jpg - Wikimedia Commons

“Everything beloved is the centre point of a paradise.” – Novalis

Novalis took the name from “de Novali” which was an old family name. The future Baron von Hardenberg was born into a noble German family in lower Saxony. He was sent to a religious school as a boy, but he was stifled by the strict atmosphere and he never adjusted to its severe discipline. He later lived with his uncle who introduced him to the French literature and rational philosophy. He then went to Weissenfels, where his father moved, and entered the Eisleben gymnasium. In 1790-91 he studied law at the University of Jena, where he met Friedrich von Schiller and Friedrich Schlegel. Novalis completed his studies at Wittenberg in 1793.

In the 1790s, the ideas of the French Revolution spread among idealistic intellectual circles throughout Europe, greatly inspiring the young Novalis. He was also deeply moved by reading the mystical philosophical writings of Goethe. Goethe’s book “Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship”, which he read in 1795, influenced him deeply; he considered it the Bible for the “New Age”. In 1795-96 he studied the works of Johann Gottlieb Fichte. At the age of 21 he moved to Tennstädt and took up job in civil service.

19 | March | 2020 | Reverse Ritual

When Novalis was a young man, he fell in love with a teenage girl named, appropriately enough, Sophie (Sophia is a personification of the goddess of wisdom, the feminine embodiment of the divine in Western gnostic traditions). His experience of love for the young woman was so deep that it became a transformative, “mystical” experience for the young and impressionable Novalis, whose reading had made him receptive to the concept of ideal love. Sadly, Sophie von Kühn died two years later of tuberculosis.

In 1798 Novalis published a series of philosophical fragments, “Fragmenten”. The loss of his beloved caused an infinitude of pain and sorrow for the hapless young lover, but it also served as strong inspiration and source of creative energy. His “Hymnen an die Nacht” (Hymns to the Night – 1800) was the resultant work. This is a collection of prose, poetry and aphorisms in praise of the sacred encounters with nature, night, sleep, and the magnetic connection between the masculine and the feminine.

Novalis – organic radicals

Novalis died at the age of 29 of tuberculosis, the same disease that claimed Sophie. He is considered one of the early German Romantics, and he is sometimes referred to as “the prophet of the Romantics”. ~from nicholasjv.com

Philipp Otto Runge’s Der kleine Morgen inspired by Novalis’s ideas

Hymns to the Night – No 6
Longing for Death

Into the bosom of the earth,
Out of the Light’s dominion,
Death’s pains are but a bursting forth,
Sign of glad departure.
Swift in the narrow little boat,
Swift to the heavenly shore we float.

Blessed be the everlasting Night,
And blessed the endless slumber.
We are heated by the day too bright,
And withered up with care.
We’re weary of a life abroad,
And we now want our Father’s home.

What in this world should we all
Do with love and with faith?
That which is old is set aside,
And the new may perish also.
Alone he stands and sore downcast
Who loves with pious warmth the Past.

The Past where the light of the senses
In lofty flames did rise;
Where the Father’s face and hand
All men did recognize;
And, with high sense, in simplicity
Many still fit the original pattern.

The Past wherein, still rich in bloom,
Man’s strain did burgeon glorious,
And children, for the world to come,
Sought pain and death victorious,
And, through both life and pleasure spake,
Yet many a heart for love did break.

The Past, where to the flow of youth
God still showed himself,
And truly to an early death
Did commit his sweet life.
Fear and torture patiently he bore
So that he would be loved forever.

With anxious yearning now we see
That Past in darkness drenched,
With this world’s water never we
Shall find our hot thirst quenched.
To our old home we have to go
That blessed time again to know.

What yet doth hinder our return
To loved ones long reposed?
Their grave limits our lives.
We are all sad and afraid.
We can search for nothing more —
The heart is full, the world is void.

Infinite and mysterious,
Thrills through us a sweet trembling —
As if from far there echoed thus
A sigh, our grief resembling.
Our loved ones yearn as well as we,
And sent to us this longing breeze.

Down to the sweet bride, and away
To the beloved Jesus.
Have courage, evening shades grow gray
To those who love and grieve.
A dream will dash our chains apart,
And lay us in the Father’s lap. ~Novalis

Image result for Raphael the painter young

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

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

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

May 2, 1924 – Deathday of Edith Maryon an English sculptor who worked closly with Rudolf Steiner on the carving of the First Goetheanum & on the Scultural Group called The ‘Representative of Humanity’. From Anthrowiki: Edith Maryon grew up as the second of six children of the wealthy master tailor John Simeon Maryon and his wife Louisa Church in central London. She attended a girls’ school and later a boarding school in Geneva, Switzerland . In the 1890s she studied sculpture at the Central School of Design in London , from 1896 at the Royal College of Arts , which she appointed in 1904 as an “Associate”. She went public with sculptural portraits and created reliefs in a classically inspired, traditionalist style.

After first meeting Rudolf Steiner in 1912/13, she moved to Dornach in the summer of 1914 and played a decisive role in the construction of the first Goetheanum . Together with Steiner, she was largely responsible for the design of the well-known large-scale sculpture The Representative of Humanity between Lucifer and Ahriman as well as colored eurythmy figure sculptures, which she also executed in wood. These works are stylistically close to Expressionism . Edith Maryon resisted any haste. For this reason, the work was not destroyed in the fire of the first Goetheanum on New Year’s Eve 1922/23, but has been preserved and is still on display in the (second) Goetheanum today.

When there was a housing shortage in Switzerland, Edith Maryon – together with Paul Johann Bay – designed three houses for employees on Dornacher Hügel between 1920-22. At that time called “English houses”, today they are called eurythmy houses .

Edith Maryon was in constant personal or letter contact with her teacher, Dr. Steiner. In a brotherly and sisterly way, he confided a great deal to her and dedicated some of his texts to her. While working in the sculptor’s studio around 1916, she once saved him from a serious, perhaps fatal, fall. In 1923 (after the burning of the first Goetheanum) Edith Maryon fell seriously ill. At the end of the year she was appointed head of the section for fine arts at the Goetheanum (without being able to hold the office) and died the following year of complications from tuberculosis .

Dennis Klocek

Sophia Community Circle 

Come together in community to explore the mystery and experience of the divine feminine, Sophia, in our time.
Click here to Register!
Registration closes May 3, 2021 

Click here to apply for financial assistance. 

WHAT: 

  • ASA Sophia Community Circle hosted by members of the Sophia Group 
  • Each unique 45 minute session will include a leading thought or experiential activity + breakout spaces & large group sharing.
  • This program will be recorded and distribuetd to all participants. 

WHEN: 

  • First Wednesdays of each month begins May 5
  • 12:30pm Eastern/ 9:30am Pacific for 45-50 minutes 
  • Find the full schedule with all dates and presenters below! 
  • Sessions will be recorded although live participation is encouraged due to the nature of the gathering. 

REGISTRATION: 

  • Register Here! Then check your email for a registration confirmation with Zoom link. 

COST : See the registration levels below to choose what fits your ability to give at this time*. 

Schedule of Presenters: 

May 5:  Signe Schaefer

June 2: Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

July 7: Michele Mariscal

August 4: Claudia Knudson 

September 1: Helen-Ann Ireland

October 6: Joyce Reilly 

November 3: Hazel Archer-Ginsberg, Angela Foster & Timothy Kennedy

December 1: Linda Bergh, Sandra LaGrega & Jennifer Fox

February 2: Laura Scappaticci & Tess Parker

March 2:  Christine Burke, Angela Foster & Jordan Walker 

April 6: All Presenters Hosting 

Register Here by May 3! 

Special Recording Notes: This gathering will be recorded each time and include all content and live attendees in the video.

The term anthroposophy should really be understood as synonymous with Sophia, meaning the content of consciousness, the soul attitude and experience that make a person a full-fledged human being. The right interpretations of anthroposophy is not “the wisdom of man,” but rather “the consciousness of one’s humanity.” -Rudolf Steiner, Awakening to Community 

News from the Central Regional Council:
1. Transitions
2. Looking for new CRC members
3. Our Whitsun Festival
4. A NEW theme for our Study GroupThe Central Regional Council’s ‘Great American Eclipse’ pageant in St. Louis

1. Marianne Fieber is stepping down as the representative of our region on the General Council of the Anthroposophical Society in America. 

We thank Marianne for her generous and warm contributions in the past several years. She will be missed but, of course, we support her decision and wish her well.  See you around, dear friend!

It is time I now pass the torch of regional representation to Hazel Archer-Ginsberg. She will be stepping into this new role of service beginning in June, 2021.
With gratitude, Marianne Fieber for the Central Regional Council

2. LOOKING FOR NEW COLLEAGUES
 For quite some time now we have been casually thinking about new colleagues. We cannot be casual any longer. As Marianne steps back, it will be important to find new regional members who are ready to step into a collaborative leadership role and help weave the work within our region into the future.
 
The future is always evolving and the work of cultivating anthroposophy throughout our vast region is dynamic and vital. Working regionally is an infinitely rewarding opportunity to serve Anthroposophia. We encourage anyone interested to join us.
 
What are we up to:
 The CRC hosts a monthly online study group. We have been doing this long before the pandemic to cultivate connection among our members and friends both within our region and beyond. We are just completing a cycle of lectures entitled Manifestations of Karma and will be moving into a new cycle and theme (more details below).
 
We are currently co-creating the national Annual General Meeting conference ”Building the Temple of the Heart” 8-10 October 2021 in our region. It is being imagined as a hybrid online, streaming and in-person event with groups throughout our region. Planning meetings for that national event have begun on a monthly basis with the national leadership.
 
Our Festival programmingin celebration of the seasons and spiritual impulses within the course of the year continues. (see below)
 
Conversations have begun regarding inter-regional collaboration and initiatives toward strengthening our Anthroposophical communities throughout our continent.
 
If you are interested in talking about how you might be ready to step in to work with the CRC, please email Alberto Loya aloyavaca@utexas.edu 

 

3. Save the dates for Sangraal – a Pentecost Pilgrimage & Whitsun Festival 
with the Central Regional Council. an experiential ‘Pageant’ written by Hazel Archer-Ginsberg, taking us on a Quest from The Cauldron of Ceridwen, to The Holy Grail, & into The Sacred Vessel of the Sophia.

Join us on Whitsunday 23 May 2021, at 11 am PT / 12 noon MT / 1 pm – 2:30 pm CT / 2 pm ET / 8 pm CETZoom Meeting 
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81181550712 
Meeting ID: 811 8155 0712

Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kBw1EgrIRMore details will be provided in a couple of weeks.  Stay tuned!



4. A NEW Theme for our Study Group
After working with Karma & Reincarnation for 3 years the CRC has chosen a new Theme:  The Mysteries of the Holy Grail – from Arthur and Parzival to Modern Initiation for our study group, beginning with the June 2nd session.  The book is available for purchase from Steiner Books and Amazon.  The lectures may also be found on the RS Archive (eLib).  We will provide links to the lectures, as possible, in the emails that contain the details for each monthly session.

Note: for our May 5th session we will be reading Chapter 11 of the Manifestations of Karma book (the last chapter of the book).

The Karma Project – Manifestations of Karma Study Group May 5, 2021 – 7:15 pm Central (8:15 pm Eastern)


“This is the other aspect of the karma of higher beings — that we develop a power of love which is not confined to humanity alone but which penetrates right into the cosmos. We shall be able to channel this love into beings higher than ourselves, and they will accept this as our offering. It will be a soul sacrifice. This sacrifice in soul will rise up to those who once poured their gifts upon us like the smoke of incense rising up to the spirits in times when human beings still possessed the gifts of the spirit. In those days they were only able to send up the symbolic smoke of sacrifice to the gods. In times to come they will send up streams of love to the spirits and out of this offering of love higher forces will pour down to humankind, which will work, with ever-increasing power, in our physical world, directed by the spiritual world. These will be magical forces in the true sense.“~Rudolf Steiner, Manifestations of Karma, Chapter 11, “Individual Karma and Shared Karma”, Hamburg, 28 May, 1910 … focus of the May 5 meeting.

The lecture can be found online at the RS Archive (eLib) by clicking this link:
 https://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA120/English/RSP1984/19100528p01.html
The Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society in America invites you to join our ongoing  study conversation.  The study has been divided among four 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: “Manifestations of Karma.”  This book is a translation from German of Die Offenbarung des Karma (Ga 120), published in English by Rudolf Steiner Press in 1996.

Video Conference Details: Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81210110113
Meeting ID: 812 1011 0113
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kdBJRUquk5
If you have questions, please contact Alberto Loya aloyavaca@utexas.edu

Agenda for our Study Call
 7:15  Welcome and Introductions        
7:18  Verse
7:25  Study led by three volunteers
Note: CRC team will ID volunteers
          Camille – pg. 202 to 207
          Travis – pg. 207 to 212
          Mary – pg. 212 to 218
          Hazel – pg. 218 to end
8:05  Conversation
8:28  Close with verse



Living into the Spheres of Cosmic Life and Cosmic Light: Easter, Ascension, Whitsun in the Calendar of the Soul  with Luigi Morelli, Hazel Archer and Geoff Norris – Zoom Host Frank Agrama
13 May 2021 Ascension Thursday 5- 6:30pm PT / 6-7:30 pm MT / 7 pm – 8:30 pm CT / 8-9:30 pm ET / 1 am – 2:30 am GMT / 2 am – 3:30 am CET

Join Zoom meeting: https://zoom.us/j/7052931041?pwd=TStPVnpFRzlwZ0NpRURBZDNyYnpBQT09 
Meeting ID: 705 293 1041 – Passcode: Ascension
Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/a961qZZhF

Welcome – Frank Agrama
Verse #6 – Geoff Norris
Ascension: The Secret Teachings, The Elementals, & The Etheric Christ – Hazel Archer

Calendar of the Soul – Luigi Morelli – For those who are familiar with the Calendar of the Soul we could say that during spring and summer we follow the ascent of cosmic life, cosmic light, cosmic warmth and cosmic Word as gifts bestowed upon the human being by the cosmos. By being receptive to them we strengthen our connection to cosmos and Self.

We will briefly explore the dynamics of the year, then look at what qualities of soul we need to develop as we move into spring and summer, most particularly from Easter to Ascension and Whitsun. We will look at the verses of the calendar in conjunction with the artistic renditions of Anne Stockton and Karl König, drawn for each of the verses.
We will ask ourselves: How can we live into and grow from this time of the year? How can we deepen our inner relationship to the event of Ascension? What can we receive and what can we give?

Break-out Groups

Group Speech Work with Geoff Norris
“Angels, in the early morning
May be seen the Dews among,
Stooping — plucking — smiling — flying —
Do the Buds to them belong?”
~Emily Dickenson

Closing Thoughts– Hazel Archer

For more info. contact Festivals Coordinator Hazel Archer

Events & Festivals Committee of the Rudolf Steiner Branch
of The Anthroposophical Society, 4249 North Lincoln Ave.
Chicago, IL 60618 (map) 

https://donate.rschicago.org/

The Quest for The Perfect Game & the Philosophy of Heroes of Fitness | Heroes Of Fitness

Sangraal: A Pentecost Pilgrimage & Whitsun Festival with the Central Regional Council an experiential ‘Pageant’ written by Hazel Archer, taking us on a Quest from The Cauldron of Ceridwen, to The Holy Grail, & into The Sacred Vessel of the Sophia.

Join us on Whitsunday 23 May 2021, at 11 am PT / 12 noon MT / 1 pm – 2:30 pm CT / 2 pm ET / 8 pm CET
Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81181550712 Meeting ID: 811 8155 0712
Dial by your location  
Meeting ID: 811 8155 0712
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kBw1EgrIR

After working with Karma & Reincarnation for 3 years the CRC has chosen a new Theme: ‘The Mysteries of the Holy Grail, from Arthur and Parzival to Modern Initiation’

You are also invited to get the Book & Join us for study sessions through out the year as well. contact Alberto Loya aloyavaca@utexas.edu for more info

Fae

Festival, Speaking with the Stars, Spring
Beltane art print | Etsy
Mira Xwendel

Today we stand at the Eve of Beltane-May Day, which this year is also Orthodox Good Friday & Holy Saturday – so interesting.  Here we see how the mysteries of birth & death bring us to the same portal seen from different sides. This morning as the birds call in the Sunrise, while moving the etheric forces in eurythmy, I couldn’t help but feel how all the Green World is charged with new life beneath the light of the growing sun.

ETHEL WYNNE M. QUAIL

This is a time when the faeries are powerfully stiring in the elements. These spirit-beings, are of a middle nature betwixt the human being & the Angels. For they are creatures of light & energy -of ‘force’ rather than ‘form,’ who can shift their shape as they please, not being bound by the laws of the physical world.

ETHEL WYNNE M. QUAIL

Today, a new awareness of these beings is returning, as people are awakening to the reality of worlds beyond the limit of the five senses – Their energies are especially potent & accessible during these Cross-Quarter times. More & more folks are cultivating relationships with the elemental beings. These believers are often visionaries, poets & artists, but really anyone who refuses to be influenced by the modern materialistic world-view can work with them.

ETHEL WYNNE M. QUAIL

It seems that, with the current crisis on Earth, we are especially called to reconnect with these Beings of Light who share our planet home. When we ignore, or even worse, pollute, degrade & lay waste to the land, sea & skies, we are destroying their world, too. We tear apart the exquisitely woven tapestry of all creation.

ETHEL WYNNE M. QUAIL

And so the spiritual beings behind these elements are bringing messages thru our current world crisis, urging us to change our ways, from living in separateness, to an awareness of our interconnectedness with all beings, visible & invisible, in the great Web of Life.

ETHEL WYNNE M. QUAIL

Friends, we don’t need special psychic powers to connect with faeries – just the willingness to open the heart & mind, as a child might do. This Beltane season, take a faery walk in Nature, where there are trees & plants, or a body of water. Find a place to sit, & get grounded, taking some deep breaths:

ETHEL WYNNE M. QUAIL

Inhale sunlight & create an imagination of a wave of green light rising from the land beneath you, rising up your body to connect you with the Earth below. Exhale & sense a wave of golden light flowing down from the heavens thru your body, connecting you with the Sun & Stars. Do this several times until you feel relaxed & charged with the energy of Earth & Sky.

ETHEL WYNNE M. QUAIL

Look around, & notice 3 natural things that are calling out to you. Send a vortex of light from the Sun thru your heart & connect with them in the way that each needs.

ETHEL WYNNE M. QUAIL

Now extend that connection to everything around you.  Rest & be at peace in this feeling of oneness.

ETHEL WYNNE M. QUAIL

Perhaps you might ask for a message from the Faery realm.  Open to receive impressions that may come to you. The response may manifest as a feeling, or a movement of light, a sparkling out of the corner of your eye, a rising within of a joyful energy; or it may come as words or images in your mind’s eye. Be open for signs from the animal kingdom, bird or insect movements, winds or calls that may carry a message for you. Send back peace, & love & gratitude…

ETHEL WYNNE M. QUAIL

It helps to be consistent, to reach out & connect thruout the seasons. Be a spiritual scientific researcher & document your impressions – Which can reveal hidden patterns. What is the communication like in the mornings, at high-noon, at sunset or midnight…?

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is beltane-swirl.jpg
Kelba Nealy

The elemental beings need us to prove that we are committed to cultivating a dialogue – trust develops & a relationship emerges…Then we can share our stories around the Beltane fires & watch the sparks rise within our own formative forces & in the world…

Beltane Blessings

~hag

Mercury and Venus after sunset, April 30, 2021
skyandtelescope.org

30 April 2021 – “Speaking with the stars”: Have you gone out to greet Mercury and Venus after sunset yet? They’re still quite low in the northwest even in bright twilight. Venus especially.

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day (so thankful for rsarchive.org/)

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY (From the Calendar of the Soul by Rudolf Steiner & Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Fritz Roeber

Walpurgis Night, In Germanic folklore Walpurgisnacht, also called Hexennacht, literally “Witches’ Night” – the eve of the feast day of Saint Walpurga, an 8th-century abbess in Francia.  In Goethe’s Faust we see 2 scenes: ‘Romantic Walpurgis Night’ the night of a witches’ meeting on the Brocken, the highest peak in the Harz Mountains, a range of wooded hills in central Germany; and later in Part 2 a ‘Classical Walpurgis Night’ is featured.

65 – Seneca, teacher of Nero, murdered

Image result for 1789 – On the balcony of Federal Hall on Wall Street in New York City, George Washington takes the oath of office

1789 – On the balcony of Federal Hall on Wall Street in New York City, George Washington takes the oath of office to become the first elected President of the United States.

Image result for 1812 – Birthday of the enigmatic Kaspar Hauser

1812 – One version of history tells us today was the Birthday of the enigmatic Kaspar Hauser. According Rudolf Steiner Kaspar Hauser was, in fact the hereditary prince of Baden, who was born 29 September 1812. According to ‘history’, the prince died on 16 October 1812. But in truth, he had been switched with a dying infant, & only released from the dark brotherhood that had tried to stop his divine mission, 16 years later as Casper Hauser in the streets of Nuremberg, Germany. His parent were Charles, Grand Duke of Baden & Stéphanie de Beauharnais, cousin by marriage & adopted daughter of Napoleon. As Charles had no surviving male progeny, his successor was his uncle Louis, who was later succeeded by his half-brother, Leopold. Leopold’s mother, the Countess of Hochberg, was the alleged culprit for the plot. The Countess was supposed to have disguised herself as a ghost, the “White Lady”, when kidnapping the prince. Her motive, evidently, would have been to secure the succession for her sons. But of course those who study Anthroposophy know,there is much more to this story.

 From Rudolf Steiner:“An author, in order to indicate the mystery of his life, wrote that as he was carried out to burial the sun was setting on the one horizon and the moon was rising on the other. I speak, as you know, of Caspar Hauser. If you disregard all the pros and cons that have been asserted, if you look only at what has been fully verified, you will know that this foundling — who was one day simply there in the street, and who since he did not know whence he came, was called the Child of Europe — could neither read nor write when he was found. At an age of twenty years he possessed nothing of what is gained through the intellect but he had a remarkable memory. As they began to instruct him, as logic entered his soul, his memory disappeared. This transition in consciousness was accompanied by something else. He possessed at first an incredible, an entirely inborn truthfulness and it was precisely in this truthfulness that he went more and more astray. The more he nibbled, so to say, at intellectuality, the more it vanished. There would be many things to study were we to enter deeply into this human soul which had been artificially held back. It is not difficult for the student of Spiritual Science to credit the popular tradition, so unacceptable to the learned people of to-day, which relates that while Caspar Hauser still knew nothing, while he still had no idea that there were beings besides himself of different form, he exercised a remarkable effect upon quite savage creatures. Savage animals humbled themselves and became mild, something streamed from him that made such beasts gentle, although they savagely attacked anyone else. We could in fact penetrate deeply into the soul of this remarkable personality, so enigmatic to many, and you would see how things that cannot be explained from ordinary life are led back through Spiritual Science to spiritual facts. Such facts cannot be learnt by speculation but only by spiritual observation, though they are comprehensible to an unbiased and logical thinking.:

1877 – Birthday of Alice B. Toklas, an American-born member of the Parisian avant-garde of the early 20th century. Life partner of American writer Gertrude Stein

1885 – The Niagara Reservation becomes New York’s first state park, ensuring that Niagara Falls will not be devoted solely to industrial & commercial use

1939 – The 1939-40 New York World’s Fair opens

Image result for hitler suicide

1945 – Adolf Hitler commits suicide

Image result for 1963 – The Bristol Bus Boycott

1963 – The Bristol Bus Boycott is held to protest the Company’s refusal to employ Black or Asian bus crews, drawing national attention to racial discrimination in the United Kingdom

News from the Central Regional Council:
1. Transitions
2. Looking for new CRC members
3. Our Whitsun Festival
4. A NEW theme for our Study GroupThe Central Regional Council’s ‘Great American Eclipse’ pageant in St. Louis

1. Marianne Fieber is stepping down as the representative of our region on the General Council of the Anthroposophical Society in America. 

We thank Marianne for her generous and warm contributions in the past several years. She will be missed but, of course, we support her decision and wish her well.  See you around, dear friend!

Here below are a few words from Marianne Fieber:
 Dear Anthroposophical Members and Friends of the Central Region,
 
In 2005 I had the great privilege to share the work I had begun with Songtrails at a regional gathering in Chicago, IL entitled The Living Map Festival. Perhaps many of you have experienced a Songtrail or heard reports from recent events. Working with the Regional Council at that time was a profound and life-changing experience for me.

My work with Songtrails has blossomed beyond my wildest dreams and I have led many individuals in experiencing a Spirit of Place while actively feeling oneself as a bridge between the earth and heavens. By weaving songs, verses, prayers with walking and stories of the land, a deep personal relationship is built with a place. Shortly after that event, I was asked to join the Central Regional Council. That was over 15 years ago. Throughout that time I have met and worked with so many colleagues, members and friends through collaborative co-creation of weekend conferences, gatherings and artistic experiences with the intention of deepening a living experience of Anthroposophia in our region.
 
I am a Central Regional being – born and raised here in the Midwest. No doubt about that. I have traveled quite a bit throughout the world and country, but feel at home here in the Heartland. It was an honor to succeed Dennis Dietzel (MN) in serving as the representative of our region on the General Council of the Anthroposophical Society in America. It is hard to describe the transformation I have undergone through the rich studies and discussions, contemplations about the direction the ASA might take to meet what the world was asking of us as spiritually striving human beings in the present and future.
 
It is time I now pass the torch of regional representation to Hazel Archer-Ginsberg. She will be stepping into this new role of service beginning in June, 2021.
With gratitude, Marianne Fieber for the Central Regional Council

2. LOOKING FOR NEW COLLEAGUES
 For quite some time now we have been casually thinking about new colleagues. We cannot be casual any longer. As Marianne steps back, it will be important to find new regional members who are ready to step into a collaborative leadership role and help weave the work within our region into the future.
 
The future is always evolving and the work of cultivating anthroposophy throughout our vast region is dynamic and vital. Working regionally is an infinitely rewarding opportunity to serve Anthroposophia. We encourage anyone interested to join us.
 
What are we up to:
 The CRC hosts a monthly online study group. We have been doing this long before the pandemic to cultivate connection among our members and friends both within our region and beyond. We are just completing a cycle of lectures entitled Manifestations of Karma and will be moving into a new cycle and theme (more details below).
 
We are currently co-creating the national Annual General Meeting conference ”Building the Temple of the Heart” 8-10 October 2021 in our region. It is being imagined as a hybrid online, streaming and in-person event with groups throughout our region. Planning meetings for that national event have begun on a monthly basis with the national leadership.
 
Our Festival programmingin celebration of the seasons and spiritual impulses within the course of the year continues. (see belwo)
 
Conversations have begun regarding inter-regional collaboration and initiatives toward strengthening our Anthroposophical communities throughout our continent.
 
If you are interested in talking about how you might be ready to step in to work with the CRC, please email Alberto Loya aloyavaca@utexas.edu 

 

3. Save the dates for Sangraal – a Pentecost Pilgrimage & Whitsun Festival 
with the Central Regional Council. an experiential ‘Pageant’ written by Hazel Archer-Ginsberg, taking us on a Quest from The Cauldron of Ceridwen, to The Holy Grail, & into The Sacred Vessel of the Sophia.

Join us on Whitsunday 23 May 2021, at 11 am PT / 12 noon MT / 1 pm – 2:30 pm CT / 2 pm ET / 8 pm CETZoom Meeting 
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81181550712 
Meeting ID: 811 8155 0712

Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kBw1EgrIRMore details will be provided in a couple of weeks.  Stay tuned!



4. A NEW Theme for our Study Group
After working with Karma & Reincarnation for 3 years the CRC has chosen a new Theme:  The Mysteries of the Holy Grail – from Arthur and Parzival to Modern Initiation for our study group, beginning with the June 2nd session.  The book is available for purchase from Steiner Books and Amazon.  The lectures may also be found on the RS Archive (eLib).  We will provide links to the lectures, as possible, in the emails that contain the details for each monthly session.

Note: for our May 5th session we will be reading Chapter 11 of the Manifestations of Karma book (the last chapter of the book).

The Karma Project – Manifestations of Karma Study Group May 5, 2021 – 7:15 pm Central (8:15 pm Eastern)


“This is the other aspect of the karma of higher beings — that we develop a power of love which is not confined to humanity alone but which penetrates right into the cosmos. We shall be able to channel this love into beings higher than ourselves, and they will accept this as our offering. It will be a soul sacrifice. This sacrifice in soul will rise up to those who once poured their gifts upon us like the smoke of incense rising up to the spirits in times when human beings still possessed the gifts of the spirit. In those days they were only able to send up the symbolic smoke of sacrifice to the gods. In times to come they will send up streams of love to the spirits and out of this offering of love higher forces will pour down to humankind, which will work, with ever-increasing power, in our physical world, directed by the spiritual world. These will be magical forces in the true sense.“~Rudolf Steiner, Manifestations of Karma, Chapter 11, “Individual Karma and Shared Karma”, Hamburg, 28 May, 1910 … focus of the May 5 meeting.

The lecture can be found online at the RS Archive (eLib) by clicking this link:
 https://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA120/English/RSP1984/19100528p01.html
The Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society in America invites you to join our ongoing  study conversation.  The study has been divided among four 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: “Manifestations of Karma.”  This book is a translation from German of Die Offenbarung des Karma (Ga 120), published in English by Rudolf Steiner Press in 1996.

Video Conference Details: Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81210110113
Meeting ID: 812 1011 0113
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kdBJRUquk5
If you have questions, please contact Alberto Loya aloyavaca@utexas.edu

Agenda for our Study Call
 7:15  Welcome and Introductions        
7:18  Verse
7:25  Study led by three volunteers
Note: CRC team will ID volunteers
          Camille – pg. 202 to 207
          Travis – pg. 207 to 212
          Mary – pg. 212 to 218
          Hazel – pg. 218 to end
8:05  Conversation
8:28  Close with verse



Living into the Spheres of Cosmic Life and Cosmic Light: Easter, Ascension, Whitsun in the Calendar of the Soul  with Luigi Morelli, Hazel Archer and Geoff Norris – Zoom Host Frank Agrama
13 May 2021 Ascension Thursday 5- 6:30pm PT / 6-7:30 pm MT / 7 pm – 8:30 pm CT / 8-9:30 pm ET / 1 am – 2:30 am GMT / 2 am – 3:30 am CET

Join Zoom meeting: https://zoom.us/j/7052931041?pwd=TStPVnpFRzlwZ0NpRURBZDNyYnpBQT09 
Meeting ID: 705 293 1041 – Passcode: Ascension
Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/a961qZZhF

Welcome – Frank Agrama
Verse #6 – Geoff Norris
Ascension: The Secret Teachings, The Elementals, & The Etheric Christ – Hazel Archer

Calendar of the Soul – Luigi Morelli – For those who are familiar with the Calendar of the Soul we could say that during spring and summer we follow the ascent of cosmic life, cosmic light, cosmic warmth and cosmic Word as gifts bestowed upon the human being by the cosmos. By being receptive to them we strengthen our connection to cosmos and Self.

We will briefly explore the dynamics of the year, then look at what qualities of soul we need to develop as we move into spring and summer, most particularly from Easter to Ascension and Whitsun. We will look at the verses of the calendar in conjunction with the artistic renditions of Anne Stockton and Karl König, drawn for each of the verses.
We will ask ourselves: How can we live into and grow from this time of the year? How can we deepen our inner relationship to the event of Ascension? What can we receive and what can we give?

Break-out Groups

Group Speech Work with Geoff Norris
“Angels, in the early morning
May be seen the Dews among,
Stooping — plucking — smiling — flying —
Do the Buds to them belong?”
~Emily Dickenson

Closing Thoughts– Hazel Archer

For more info. contact Festivals Coordinator Hazel Archer

Events & Festivals Committee of the Rudolf Steiner Branch
of The Anthroposophical Society, 4249 North Lincoln Ave.
Chicago, IL 60618 (map) 

https://donate.rschicago.org/

Holy Grail - Wikipedia

Sangraal: A Pentecost Pilgrimage & Whitsun Festival with the Central Regional Council an experiential ‘Pageant’ written by Hazel Archer, taking us on a Quest from The Cauldron of Ceridwen, to The Holy Grail, & into The Sacred Vessel of the Sophia.

Join us on Whitsunday 23 May 2021, at 11 am PT / 12 noon MT / 1 pm – 2:30 pm CT / 2 pm ET / 8 pm CET
Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81181550712 Meeting ID: 811 8155 0712
Dial by your location  
Meeting ID: 811 8155 0712
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kBw1EgrIR

After working with Karma & Reincarnation for 3 years the CRC has chosen a new Theme: ‘The Mysteries of the Holy Grail, from Arthur and Parzival to Modern Initiation’

The Mysteries of the Holy Grail: From Arthur and Parzival to Modern Initiation: Steiner, Rudolf, Barton, Matthew: 9781855842342: Amazon.com: Books

You are also invited to get the Book & Join us for study sessions through out the year as well. contact Alberto Loya aloyavaca@utexas.edu for more info

Pandora’s Box

Insight, Remembering, Speaking with the Stars
mother pain, original Painting created by the artist Shimon Wanda | Israel Modern Art
Shimon Wanda

‘I Think Speech‘ Podcast for today.

Greetings friends – I was hoping my headache would subside so I could share my dream from this morning, but hells bells Sarah Sue no luck. What does Steiner say about pain? Well off hand I remember recently reading in our ‘Manifestations of Karma’ lectures by our dear Dr. Steiner, that an illness involving pain or inflammation is Luciferic – Illness with tumors or cancer are more Ahrimanic. I also remember at another time reading how ‘pain is crystalized wisdom’. Ha, then I started thinking of the song by Sting, ‘King of Pain’. Anyway humor always helps.  

Kathy Gibson Prints | Huntington's Disease Society of America
Kathy Gibson

For the last few nights in an attempt to bring some insights into a karmic conundrum, I have been employing one of Steiner’s ‘Karma exercises’ – where you take a physical attribute or mannerism that sticks out for you of the person you are working to get some clarity about into your sleep. The 1st night I actually slept pretty well & woke up feeling as if my angel had removed a brick from my shoulders. This was a powerful affirmation because after a long hard conversation, the 2 of us had said we were going to hand it over to our angels.

ArtPrize Artist Depicts Pain of Huntington's Disease, Caregiving - MIBluesPerspectives
Lenny Jenner

But last night my monkey mind was running mad with a conversation involving the 3rd person in the triad, & I couldn’t rest. I finally got out of bed around 3 am & wrote out some questions. After my sunrise adulations, which always  do wonders for my soul, I laid down for a bit before I had to prepare for my ‘Tune-in Tuesday’ presentation for our 6 BE community. And that’s when I had the dream:

File:Pandora - John William Waterhouse.jpg - Wikimedia Commons
John William Waterhouse

I had been assigned to open Pandora’s Box. I even looked like a painting of our dear unlucky heroine, with the Grecian robes & wreathed hair etc. I braced myself, & with a shiver lifted the lock, cracking open a large chest. I remember thinking, that it called to mind the image of the Holy Ark of The Covenant, bright shining metal with long handles, but the golden angels on top looked very Egyptian. At first all that happened was that a big honey bee came zig zagging out, & I thought ‘O how beautiful, it’s a bee. This is great.’

Pin on Bees & Crowns
The Hornet by Bill Duncan 1890

So then I opened the box all the way. But then the bee turned out to be a hornet in disguise, & she was followed by a whole nest of killer hornets. I put my body in front of the box to try & keep them from all coming out. I looked down to see my now bare breasts covered with stings – swelling & oozing with poison. I struggled to close my eyes, but I couldn’t. Actually I was saying to myself open your eyes, open your eyes, even though in the dream I was trying to close them.

Heart pain Painting by Elena Spedale
Elena Speedale

Anyway that was when the hornet, who had at first been disguised as a bee, came back into view, this time it had a human face that looked like a crumbled piece of paper. I gasped because I recognized who it was, & when I did, the face dissolved into dust.

Angels in Human Form Quotes (Page 6) - Line.17QQ.com
Jeffery L. Royland

The Egyptian Angels lifted me up & whispered in my ear. And I knew what to do. That’s when I woke up. I had a pounding headache, but I went into my study & started doing the eurythmy gestures for ‘Faith, Love, & Hope’.

I do these most every day at Sunrise, but I had done something else this morning. While I was doing ‘Faith’ which I like to call ‘Ah Ha’ for awe & reverence, it was so strange, I struggled with it. I found it very awkward. Usually I love this one. I have always felt it came easy for me to practice reverence. But then I realized that while it comes easy to have Faith in the seasonal expressions of beauty, I don’t always bring that faith or awe into my human relationships.

Black karma by date of birth. How is karma calculated by date of birth?

And now writing this I am wanting to hope that perhaps because I let the hornet disguised as a bee bring its full wrath upon me, that maybe now our karmic debt could be paid. But, I know for this to happen, I will have to apply compassion in the form of ‘Faith, Love & Hope’ not just in a general way, but specifically toward the hornet & then maybe she would actually become a honey bee. And maybe my headaches would go away…

~hag

https://skyandtelescope.org/

27 April 2021 – “speaking with the Stars”

katie Wang

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY (From the Calendar of the Soul by Rudolf Steiner & Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Feast day of Our Lady of Montserrat – One of the Black Madonnas of Europe, (“the little dark-skinned one” or “the little dark one”)- Believed by some to have been carved in Jerusalem in the early days of the Church. The Patron Saint of Catalonia, an honor she shares with Saint George. The famed image once bore the inscription ”Negra Sum Sed Formosa” (Latin: I am Black, but Beautiful).

The hymn to the Virgin of Montserrat, known as “el Virolai” is sung at noon on her feast day & begins with the words: “Rosa d’abril, Morena de la serra…” (April rose, dark-skinned lady of the mountain…). Therefore, this virgin is sometimes also known as the “Rosa d’abril”

Feast Day of St. Zita, the Italian patron saint of maids, often appealed to in order to help find lost keys. Born in Tuscany in the village of Monsagrati, not far from Lucca. At the age of 12, she became a servant in the Fatinelli household. For a long time, she was unjustly despised, overburdened, reviled, & often beaten by her employers & fellow servants for her hard work & obvious goodness. The abuse did not deprive her of her inward peace, & her love of those who wronged her. Her faith gradually moved the family to a religious awakening.

Zita often said to others that devotion is false if slothful. She considered her work assigned to her by God. She always rose several hours before the rest of the family to pray.

One anecdote relates a story of Zita giving her own food to the poor. One morning, Zita left her chore of baking bread to tend to someone in need. Some of the other servants told on her & when they went to investigate, they claimed to have found angels in the kitchen, baking the bread for her.

St. Zita died peacefully in her sleep & a star appeared above the attic where she lay. After 150 miracles were proven, she was canonized in 1696.

Her body was exhumed in 1580, discovered to be incorrupt, but has since become mummified. St. Zita’s body is currently on display for public veneration in the Basilica di San Frediano in Lucca.

On her feast day families bake a loaf of bread in her honor.

470 – Birthday of Socrates – teacher of Plato. “Socrates gathers his pupils around himself, but how does he feel in relation to them? His manner of treating these pupils has been called the art of a spiritual midwife because he wished to draw out from the souls of his pupils what they themselves knew, and what they were to learn. He put his questions in such a manner that the fundamental inner mood of the souls of his pupils was stirred to movement. He transmitted nothing from himself to his pupils, but elicited everything from them. The somewhat dry and prosaic aspect of Socrates’ view of the world and the way he presented it comes from the fact that Socrates actually appealed to the independence and to the innate reasoning power of every pupil.” ~Rudolf Steiner, Gospel of Mark: Lecture 4

399 BC – Deathday of Socrates 

711 – Tarik ibn Ziyad, (who according to the spiritual scientific research of Rudolf Steiner in Karmic relationships Vol. 1 Chapter 10, reincarnated as Darwin) leads his army into Gibraltar

1667 – John Milton, blind & impoverished, sells the copyright of Paradise Lost for 10 pounds

1882 – Deathday of R.W.Emerson essayist, lecturer, & poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champion of individualism & a prescient critic of the countervailing pressures of society, & he disseminated his thoughts through dozens of published essays & more than 1,500 public lectures across the United States.

Emerson gradually moved away from the religious & social beliefs of his contemporaries, formulating & expressing the philosophy of transcendentalism in his 1836 essay “Nature”. Following this work, he gave a speech entitled “The American Scholar” in 1837, which Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. considered to be America’s “intellectual Declaration of Independence”.

Emerson wrote most of his important essays as lectures first & then revised them for print. His first two collections of essays, Essays: First Series (1841) & Essays: Second Series (1844), represent the core of his thinking. They include the well-known essays “Self-Reliance”, “The Over-Soul”, “Circles”, “The Poet” &”Experience”. Together with “Nature”, these essays made the decade from the mid-1830s to the mid-1840s Emerson’s most fertile period.

Emerson wrote on a number of subjects, never espousing fixed philosophical tenets, but developing certain ideas such as individuality, freedom, the ability for humankind to realize almost anything, & the relationship between the soul & the surrounding world. Emerson’s “nature” was more philosophical than naturalistic: “Philosophically considered, the universe is composed of Nature and the Soul”. Emerson is one of several figures who “took a more pantheist approach by rejecting views of God as separate from the world.”

He remains among the linchpins of the American romantic movement, & his work has greatly influenced the thinkers, writers & poets that followed him. When asked to sum up his work, he said his central doctrine was “the infinitude of the private man.” Emerson is also well known as a mentor & friend of Henry David Thoreau, a fellow transcendentalist.

(Spoken of by Rudolf Steiner as Tacitus in Vol 2 lecture 5, of Karmic Relationships. Tacitus was considered to be one of the greatest Roman historians. He lived in what has been called the Silver Age of Latin literature, & is known for the brevity & compactness of his Latin prose, as well as for his penetrating insights into the psychology of power politics )

sarmaticusblog.wordpress.com

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~I am blind until the moment I see
Thru another soul’s eyes
Listening with my hands
Lips pressed in prayer
My head rests in love
Limbs moving in sync with the will
Of spirit ensouled
The Logos in lemniscate
Strengthening the ether
In visible speech we stand
Together at the center of forever
~hag

KARMA SIRIKOGAR ART | Art, Visionary art, Abstract
Devi Soickavari
The Karma Project – Manifestations of Karma Study Group
May 5, 2021 – 7:15 pm Central (8:15 pm Eastern)

“This is the other aspect of the karma of higher beings — that we develop a power of love which is not confined to humanity alone but which penetrates right into the cosmos. We shall be able to channel this love into beings higher than ourselves, and they will accept this as our offering. It will be a soul sacrifice. This sacrifice in soul will rise up to those who once poured their gifts upon us like the smoke of incense rising up to the spirits in times when human beings still possessed the gifts of the spirit. In those days they were only able to send up the symbolic smoke of sacrifice to the gods. In times to come they will send up streams of love to the spirits and out of this offering of love higher forces will pour down to humankind, which will work, with ever-increasing power, in our physical world, directed by the spiritual world. These will be magical forces in the true sense.“~Rudolf Steiner, Manifestations of Karma, Chapter 11, “Individual Karma and Shared Karma”, Hamburg, 28 May, 1910 … focus of the May 5 meeting.

The lecture can be found online at the RS Archive (eLib) by clicking this link: https://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA120/English/RSP1984/19100528p01.htmlThe Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society in America invites you to join our ongoing  study conversation.  The study has been divided among four 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: “Manifestations of Karma.”  This book is a translation from German of Die Offenbarung des Karma (Ga 120), published in English by Rudolf Steiner Press in 1996.

This will be a “Zoom” conference call allowing us an opportunity to see one another while conversing (or audio only if you prefer).  To connect to the audio/video-conference:

Video Conference Details: Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81210110113
Meeting ID: 812 1011 0113
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kdBJRUquk5
If you have questions, please contact Alberto Loya aloyavaca@utexas.edu
Agenda for our Study Call
 7:15  Welcome and Introductions        
7:18  Verse
7:25  Study led by three volunteers
Note: CRC team will ID volunteers
          Camille – pg. 202 to 207
          Travis – pg. 207 to 212
          Mary – pg. 212 to 218
          Hazel – pg. 218 to end
8:05  Conversation
8:28  Close with verse
Anthroposophische Seelenkalender als Wanddruck | Glomer.com

Living into the Spheres of Cosmic Life and Cosmic Light: Easter, Ascension, Whitsun in the Calendar of the Soul  with Luigi Morelli, Hazel Archer and Geoff Norris – Zoom Host Frank Agrama

13 May 2021 Ascension Thursday 5- 6:30pm PT / 6-7:30 pm MT / 7 pm – 8:30 pm CT / 8-9:30 pm ET / 1 am – 2:30 am GMT / 2 am – 3:30 am CET

Join Zoom meeting: https://zoom.us/j/7052931041?pwd=TStPVnpFRzlwZ0NpRURBZDNyYnpBQT09 

Meeting ID: 705 293 1041 – Passcode: Ascension

Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/a961qZZhF

Welcome – Frank Agrama

Verse #6 – Geoff Norris

Ascension: The Secret Teachings, The Elementals, & The Etheric Christ – Hazel Archer

Calendar of the Soul – Luigi Morelli

For those who are familiar with the Calendar of the Soul we could say that during spring and summer we follow the ascent of cosmic life, cosmic light, cosmic warmth and cosmic Word as gifts bestowed upon the human being by the cosmos. By being receptive to them we strengthen our connection to cosmos and Self.

We will briefly explore the dynamics of the year, then look at what qualities of soul we need to develop as we move into spring and summer, most particularly from Easter to Ascension and Whitsun. We will look at the verses of the calendar in conjunction with the artistic renditions of Anne Stockton and Karl König, drawn for each of the verses.

We will ask ourselves: How can we live into and grow from this time of the year? How can we deepen our inner relationship to the event of Ascension? What can we receive and what can we give?

Break-out Groups

Group Speech Work with Geoff Norris

“Angels, in the early morning
May be seen the Dews among,
Stooping — plucking — smiling — flying —
Do the Buds to them belong?”
~Emily Dickenson

Closing Thoughts – Hazel Archer

For more info. contact Festivals Coordinator Hazel Archer

Events & Festivals Committee of the Rudolf Steiner Branch
of The Anthroposophical Society, 4249 North Lincoln Ave.
Chicago, IL 60618 (map) 

https://donate.rschicago.org/

***

Holy Grail - Wikipedia

Sangraal: A Pentecost Pilgrimage & Whitsun Festival with the Central Regional Council an experiential ‘Pageant’ written by Hazel Archer, taking us on a Quest from The Cauldron of Ceridwen, to The Holy Grail, & into The Sacred Vessel of the Sophia.

Join us on Whitsunday 23 May 2021, at 11 am PT / 12 noon MT / 1 pm – 2:30 pm CT / 2 pm ET / 8 pm CET

Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81181550712 Meeting ID: 811 8155 0712

Dial by your location  
Meeting ID: 811 8155 0712
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kBw1EgrIR

After working with Karma & Reincarnation for 3 years the CRC has chosen a new Theme: ‘The Mysteries of the Holy Grail, from Arthur and Parzival to Modern Initiation’

The Mysteries of the Holy Grail: From Arthur and Parzival to Modern Initiation: Steiner, Rudolf, Barton, Matthew: 9781855842342: Amazon.com: Books

You are also invited to get the Book & Join us for study sessions through out the year as well. contact Alberto Loya aloyavaca@utexas.edu for more info.

On the front line of your mind’s eye

Insight, Poetry, Speaking with the Stars
Radiant Light
Elizabeth Wang

Listen to todays blog on the ‘I Think Speech‘ podcast

As we stand on this brink, as we dance on this verge, we can’t let the ruling fools of the dying world sustain their curses. We have to rise up & fight their insane logic; defy & resist & prevent their tragic magic; unleash our sacred knowing & let the world revel in it.

But overthrowing the living dead is not enough. Protesting the well-dressed monsters is not enough. We can’t afford to be consumed with anger. We can’t be obsessed & possessed with grievance. Our visceral bodies need to feel rowdy blessings. Our amazing imaginations need to thrive on missions that incite our harmonious unity.

Radiant Light
Elizabeth Wang

We need – Truths in their natural forms – Insurrectionary Beauty that Excites our Curiosity – Outrageous Goodness that drives us to perform heroic acts of unselfish Compassion – Ingenious Justice that endlessly affirms us – Complex Freedom that is never permanent but must be reinvented & reclaimed every day, & a totally-serious-yet-always-laughing Love that schemes & dreams about how to transform the suffering & increase the Wisdom of every Sentient Being.

I Saw Christ Standing On The Brink Of Heaven, His Arms Outstretched In Prayer Painting by Elizabeth Wang
Elizabeth Wang


So I’m radically curious, my fellow creators – Since we are in charge of making a brand New World, where do we begin?

What truths in their wild state are we planning to plant at the heart of our creation? What stories will be our reminders? What questions will be our fuel?

Radiant Light
Elizabeth Wang


As we bring Heaven & Earth together, as the dreamtime & daytime merge, as paradise & the underworld overlap, we register the shockingly exhilarating fact
that we are in charge – you & I are in charge – of making a brand new world. Not in some distant time or faraway place, but right here & right now.

See you on the front line of your mind’s eye…

Radiant Light
Elizabeth Wang

24 April 2021 – “Speaking with the Stars“: This evening Arcturus shines about three fists left of Bella Luna. Look below the Moon to find Spica, the brightest star of Virgo.

***

Elizabeth Wang , reproductions et copies fabriquées sur mesure par REPRO-TABLEAUX.COM
Elizabeth Wang

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

479 BC – Thutmose III ascends to the throne of Egypt

1184 BC – Traditional date of the fall of Troy

1915 – The arrest of 250 Armenian intellectuals & community leaders in Istanbul marks the beginning of the Armenian Genocide

1904 – Birthday of Willem de Kooning, Dutch-American painter & educator

1942 – Birthday of Barbra Streisand, American singer, actress, & producer

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~Will you
Sow the seeds of premonition
Into a fruitful action
To ignite the weave
In radiant expectation…?
~hag

Anthroposophische Seelenkalender als Wanddruck | Glomer.com

Living into the Spheres of Cosmic Life and Cosmic Light: Easter, Ascension, Whitsun in the Calendar of the Soul  with Luigi Morelli, Hazel Archer and Geoff Norris – Zoom Host Frank Agrama

13 May 2021 Ascension Thursday 5- 6:30pm PT / 6-7:30 pm MT / 7 pm – 8:30 pm CT / 8-9:30 pm ET / 1 am – 2:30 am GMT / 2 am – 3:30 am CET

Join Zoom meeting: https://zoom.us/j/7052931041?pwd=TStPVnpFRzlwZ0NpRURBZDNyYnpBQT09 

Meeting ID: 705 293 1041 – Passcode: Ascension

Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/a961qZZhF

Welcome – Frank Agrama

Verse #6 – Geoff Norris

Ascension: The Secret Teachings, The Elementals, & The Etheric Christ – Hazel Archer

Calendar of the Soul – Luigi Morelli

For those who are familiar with the Calendar of the Soul we could say that during spring and summer we follow the ascent of cosmic life, cosmic light, cosmic warmth and cosmic Word as gifts bestowed upon the human being by the cosmos. By being receptive to them we strengthen our connection to cosmos and Self.

We will briefly explore the dynamics of the year, then look at what qualities of soul we need to develop as we move into spring and summer, most particularly from Easter to Ascension and Whitsun. We will look at the verses of the calendar in conjunction with the artistic renditions of Anne Stockton and Karl König, drawn for each of the verses.

We will ask ourselves: How can we live into and grow from this time of the year? How can we deepen our inner relationship to the event of Ascension? What can we receive and what can we give?

Break-out Groups

Group Speech Work with Geoff Norris

“Angels, in the early morning
May be seen the Dews among,
Stooping — plucking — smiling — flying —
Do the Buds to them belong?”
~Emily Dickenson

Closing Thoughts – Hazel Archer

***

Holy Grail - Wikipedia

Sangraal: A Pentecost Pilgrimage & Whitsun Festival with the Central Regional Council an experiential ‘Pageant’ written by Hazel Archer, taking us on a Quest from The Cauldron of Ceridwen, to The Holy Grail, & into The Sacred Vessel of the Sophia.

Join us on Whitsunday 23 May 2021, at 11 am PT / 12 noon MT / 1 pm – 2:30 pm CT / 2 pm ET / 8 pm CET

Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81181550712 Meeting ID: 811 8155 0712

Dial by your location  
Meeting ID: 811 8155 0712
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kBw1EgrIR

After working with Karma & Reincarnation for 3 years the CRC has chosen a new Theme: ‘The Mysteries of the Holy Grail, from Arthur and Parzival to Modern Initiation’

The Mysteries of the Holy Grail: From Arthur and Parzival to Modern Initiation: Steiner, Rudolf, Barton, Matthew: 9781855842342: Amazon.com: Books

You are also invited to get the Book & Join us for study sessions through out the year as well. contact Alberto Loya aloyavaca@utexas.edu for more info.