Many have asked for the recording of the workshop I did with the YIP 13 Initiative Forum “Are You Listening” They have generously allowed me to share it after editing out the question & answer sessions for privacy reasons. So here it is:Anthroposophia: Weaving a non-gendered Femininist Realitywith Hazel Archer-Ginsberg
Shelly Earl
Beloved Friends – It is now just over a full year since I started writing about the ‘Corona Crisis’. In looking back it is interersting to see how drasticly the world has changed in one solar cycle. Now more than ever, I am standing with you, & all of humanity; called to face the ‘Guardian of the Threshold’.
Sabina Wozinka
Not all of us are conscious of this faithful encounter. But for me, it is feels like a reckoning, an uncomfortable inspection of the good, the bad & the ugly parts of my being; those places where I ‘miss the mark’; the bad habits & false pride. I think of how Rudolf Steiner said that if there had been ‘4 times 12 true anthroposophist’s’, WW1 & therefore all the subsequent wars, could have been avoided. And when I ask myself if could be counted in that number, I find myself sorely lacking, & it pains me.
Odilon Redon
I want to stop wrestling with my angel, & just embrace this opportunity that the current world situation is providing. How can I make straight the path? How can I avoid the abyss & bring healing to my dis-ease, which is also reflected in the world around me? How can I be of service to humankind, a pure vessel for Anthroposophia? -When suddenly my daily meditations aren’t always enough to get me through the dark nights. I can’t force anything, & yet I cannot give in, or let the astral noise drown me.
Berkley Wenderleen
I must be patient & learn to be still, taking my practices deeper. Remembering how eternally grateful I am, that my karma has brought me to Spiritual Science, & to all of you. I am working hard to visualize this, to reinforce the affirmation, that yes, I am a striving human being, I am where I am, I have come far & I have far to go. And this ongoing path of initiation is not meant to be a walk in the park, it is a practice that must lead thru a ‘death process’, so that I can meet myself in the Underworld, to redeem those lost shadow parts of my being, that long for the light of a New Resurrection, achieved thru honest labor & grace.
Jeff Neugebauer
Friends, I pray that we will continue to give birth, each in our own ways, to the being of Anthroposophia within, so that together, in wholeness, we can stand on a firm foundation, to usher in what could be seen as a New ‘World Time Turning Beginning’, bringing light to love, opening the way thru the heart-thinking of Michael, to the etheric Christ.
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21 March 2021 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Now spring has arrived – Yet, the waxing moon is moving inside the hexagonal star pattern, known as the Winter Circle.
1417 – 1487 Birth & Death & Feast Day of St Nicholas of Flüe a Swiss hermit & ascetic who is the patron saint of Switzerland. He is sometimes invoked as Brother Klaus. A farmer, councilor, judge & mystic, he was respected as a man of complete moral integrity. Rudolf Steiner calls him ‘a hero in the spirit’ & tells us ‘he foresaw his baptism in the womb.’
1617 – Deathday of Pocahontas, Algonquian Indigenous princess
1788 – A fire in New Orleans leaves most of the town in ruins.
1800 – With the church leadership driven out of Rome during an armed conflict, Pius VII is crowned Pope in Venice with a temporary papal tiara made of papier-mâché.
1893 – Birthday of Eugen Kolisko, remembered for his pioneer work in anthroposophy, was an Austrian-German physician & educator. He studied medicine at the University of Vienna, & became a lecturer of medical chemistry. Eugen Kolisko was introduced to anthroposophy through his classmate, Walter Johannes Stein. In 1914, he first attended lectures given by Rudolf Steiner. Consequently, he became a member of the Anthroposophical Society, & in 1920 was invited as an instructor to the newly established Waldorf School at Stuttgart by Emil Molt. Kolisko specialized in preventative medicine, & at the Waldorf School he worked with other teachers in creating a curriculum that focused on the spiritual & physical development of school children. He was instrumental in construction of several artistic therapies, such as anthroposophic music therapy & eurythmy. During the 1930s, he left the Waldorf School in Stuttgart because of the Nazis, relocating to England in 1936, where he undertook the establishment of a private educational institute. Eugen Kolisko was the author of numerous written works
1918 – With the Spanish Flu just starting to make its appearance during World War I: The first phase of the German Spring Offensive, Operation Michael, begins.
1895 – Deathday of William Q. Judge, born in Dublin. He was brought up a Methodist, but early showed strong occult tendencies. The family migrated to New York, in 1864. Judge became an American citizen at 21. He worked as a clerk at an early age as he had to be self-supporting. Hhe married in 1874, & had one daughter who died of diphtheria. At the time of the formation of The Theosophical Society he was a law clerk in the office of the U.S. Attorney for the S. District of New York. He was later admitted to the Bar, & made a specialty of Commercial Law. He was modest, unassuming, eager for occult instruction & ready to work. At first H.P. Blavatsky objected to Judge becoming a Councillor, but he won her friendly regard & kept it. He developed leadership, & became one of the most important figures in The Theosophical Society. William Quan Judge served as editor of the periodical, The Path, from 1886-1896. “To try on the one hand to point out to their fellows a Path in which they have found hope for man, and on the other to investigate all systems of ethics and philosophy claiming to lead directly to such a path, regardless of the possibility that the highway may, after all, be in another direction from the one in which they are looking.” Then difficulties arose, & he led the secession of the majority of American Lodges, in 1895.
1925 – The Butler Act prohibits the teaching of human evolution in Tennessee.
1928 – Charles Lindbergh is presented with the Medal of Honor for the first solo trans-Atlantic flight.
1960 – Apartheid: Sharpeville massacre, South Africa: Police open fire on a group of black South African demonstrators, killing 69 &wounding 180.
1965 – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. leads 3,200 people on the start of the third & finally successful civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.
1685 – Birthday of Johann Sebastian Bach, German Baroque composer & musician
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Awel Dikalli
POD (Poem Of the Day)
~In the dark theater of pregnant perfumes A fragrance of destiny Escaping the human picture prison To inhale a plot… ~hag
Daniel Ospina
The 8-Fold Path to the Easter Elementals
Holy Week 2021 (March 28 – April 4): Starting on Palm Sunday then thru-out Holy Week including Easter Morning, we will meet every day on Zoom at 10:10 am (Central Time) to create together a Thought-Seed Egregore based on the Herbert Hahn Verse
“When I think light, my soul shines, When my soul shines, the earth is a star, When the earth is a star, then I am, a true human being”
Sophie Takata
& then we will take turns sharing the indications for that day from Rudolf Steiner / The Buddha’s 8 –fold Path, known as the ‘Weekday Exercises’ (let me know if you would like to lead one of the days? (5 min) HOLY WEEK CHART
Palm SUNDAY Resolves or ‘RIGHT JUDGMENT.’ having been formed independently of sympathies and antipathies.
Holy MONDAY Talking – ‘RIGHT WORD.’
Holy TUESDAY – RUDOLF STEINER’S DEATH DAY – STAY TUNED FOR DETAILS OFOR A VIGIL AT 2PM CENTRAL TIME External actions- ‘RIGHT DEED.’
Holy WEDNESDAY The ordering of life. – ‘RIGHT STANDPOINT.’
Maundy THURSDAY Human Endeavour. – ‘TO LET ALL THE EXERCISES BECOME A HABIT.’
Good FRIDAY The endeavor to learn as much as possible from life. – ‘RIGHT MEMORY.’ (Remembering what has been learned from experiences).
Holy SATURDAY To pay attention to one’s ideas. – ‘RIGHT OPINION.’
The octave of the New Sun EASTER SUNDAY To turn one’s gaze inwards – ‘RIGHT EXAMINATION.’
Whoever is holding the leading thoughts for that day will tie it into some 5-10 min. artistic exercise based on the indications
Group sharing (5 min)
We close with the ‘reversed’ Hahn verse. I am a True Human Being For the Earth is a Star The Earth is a Star When I Think Light When I think Light My Soul Shines
*Dear friends, please join the call at 10:05 am to get settled in so we can begin the Thought-Seed promptly at 10:10 am Topic: The 8-Fold Path thru Holy Week 2021 Time: Starting on Palm Sunday Mar 28 – thru Easter Morning, 2021 10:10 AM Central Time (US and Canada) Every day, 8 occurrence(s) Mar 28, 2021 10:10 AM Mar 29, 2021 10:10 AM Mar 30, 2021 10:10 AM Mar 31, 2021 10:10 AM Apr 1, 2021 10:10 AM Apr 2, 2021 10:10 AM Apr 3, 2021 10:10 AM Apr 4, 2021 10:10 AM
Dial by your location – Meeting ID: 705 293 1041 – Passcode: 776400 – Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/a961qZZhF
Events & Festivals Committee of the Rudolf Steiner Branch of The Anthroposophical Society, 4249 North Lincoln Ave. Chicago, IL 60618 (map) https://donate.rschicago.org/
A Tall Tale on the ‘I Think Speech’ podcast – Greetings friends on this eve of St. Patrick’s Day, Today for ‘Tune-in Tuesday’ – my weekly musing for our Practice Group working with the 6Basic, Essential, Protective exercises, given to us by Rudolf Steiner, in honor of the 5th exercise of Open-mindedness, I thought to share a ‘Tall Tale’ revised by me for us today, but originally told 6 years ago when my daughter was still at the Chicago Waldorf School, by master teacher Carol Triggiano, known far & wide as a fabulous storyteller – Open-mindedness asks us to consider that anything is possible. So here is a wonderful Paul Bunyan Tall Tale.
The crescent Moon A 12-percent-lit Moon hangs in the sky the evening of March 16, showing off Mare Crisium on its eastern side. NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio
16 March 2021 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Bella Luna passes south of Uranus at 9 pm CST. Our satellite, less than four days old & only 12 percent lit an hour after sunset, currently straddles the border between Cetus & Aries. Just visible along the lit lunar edge is Mare Crisium, the Sea of Crises. On its western side are two small craters: Pierce to the south & Swift to the north. And north of the mare’s rim is the large crater Cleomedes, which stands out in stark relief now but will begin to disappear as the Moon grows closer to Full, losing contrast along the way.
1244 – Over 200 Cathars who refuse to recant are burned to death after the Fall of Montségur.
1966 – Death Day of Countess Johanna von Keyserlingk
Johanna von Keyserlingk: Vessel for the Etheric Christ
Humanity is ripe for ‘the Christ experience’ such as Paul had in Damascus. Johanna von Keyserlingk, the hostess of the conference in Koberwitz in 1924 where biodynamic agriculture was born, was one such person. Inwardly she was also the hostess of powerful spiritual observations. She shared these insights in books such ‘Gralburg’ (Grail Castle, about the Hermitage near the Goetheanum in Bern Switzerland) ‘Twelve days around Rudolf Steiner’ (about her time with Rudolf Steiner during the Agriculture course on her estate) her insights into The mystery of Kaspar Hauser & Lord Stanhope, & power of the Palladium. The trip to Byzantium – The Palladium of Victory. But mostly her life was very secret, & she endured a lot of suffering.
As an 8-year-old girl of noble birth, while walking with her governess in the Vienna Woods in 1887, meets a thin, 26-year-old man, with dark hair & powerful eyes, who looks at her with a penetrating gaze. This meeting lives & works in her until, as the 39-year-old countess, she meets a 56-year-old man towards the end of the 1st World War. She had already attended 2 of his lectures & read some of his books. After this meeting she is able to speak with him in private. He asks her where she was at the age of 8. After some thought, she comes to nothing but the place – Breslau, where she lived then. But he shakes his head, apparently he means something else with his question. Johanna has more conversations with him & six months later he repeats the question. Then she suddenly remembers the young man in the Vienna Woods who had looked at her with wonderful eyes. This man was, of course, Rudolf Steiner.
On March 26, 1879, on the threshold of the beginning of the new Michael era, Johanna was born in Brno. Her father, which she described as a true despot, was the son of Scottish nobility -Karl von Skene. He eneded up in Silesia via Austria & married her future mother, Klara Schoeller, who came from a family of industrialists. Together with 3 brothers (Karl, Philipp & Robert) she lived near her father’s estates.
Her clairvoyant powers were revealed early on, which was not unusual in her father’s Celtic line. These experiences made her both lonely & independent at an early age. Not understood by people in her environment, she often sought comfort in nature, in the park near ancient trees, & there she had contact with elemental spirits.
About this period she wrote: “I remember very well that as a small child I could look at the window between the bars of my bed and see the sun rise in the morning and that I experienced the sun as what other children see as their mother and father. I know also, that the other children I played with often chased me when I correctly predicted the death of an adult as if it were self-evident. However, when I noticed that not even my mother saw what I perceived spiritually in my environment, I kept silent.”
At the end of her teens, she became involved with Kant’s philosophy, with Angelus Silesius & with the poet Hölderlin. In 1899 she was 21 years old, she married Count Carl Wilhelm von Keyserlingk, & had 3 boys: Wolfgang (1900), & a boy (1902) who soon died & Adalbert (1905). They went to live in Klettendorff, not far from Breslau. Later this became the castle Koberwitz (1920), partly on the advice of Steiner.
Because of her devoted son Adalbert, most of the memoirs & notes were made public, but only after Johanna died at the age of 87 (March 16, 1966 in Bad Teinach). With intimate friends such as Rudolf Meyer (who lived in Koberwitz for 3 years), Emil Bock, Friedrich Rittelmeyer, Eliza von Moltke, Margarita Woloschina & Monica von Miltitz, she already shared her experiences & her confidential conversations with Steiner during her life.
When she was 28, Johanna went thru a painful phase in her life. She was sick in bed due to an entopic pregnancy, which almost killed her. What she experienced was that some sort of strange individuality wanted to incarnate in her.
“When I had been given up by the doctors and felt that my life force was leaving me, I suddenly saw a shining figure next to the bed, from which a penetrating force emanated.”
And the first words she was able to speak after this experience were:
“Me and my house want to serve the Lord; for I have experienced what the captain of Capernaum experienced.” (And when Jesus entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, imploring Him, 6and saying, “Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, fearfully tormented.” 7Jesus said to him, “I will come and heal him.” 8But the centurion said, “Lord, I am not worthy for You to come under my roof, but just say the word, and my servant will be healed. 9“For I also am a man under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to this one, ‘Go!’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come!’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this!’ and he does it.” 10Now when Jesus heard this, He marveled and said to those who were following, “Truly I say to you, I have not found such great faith with anyone in Israel. 11“I say to you that many will come from east and west, and recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven; 12but the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” 13And Jesus said to the centurion, “Go; it shall be done for you as you have believed.” And the servant was healed that very moment. ~ Matthew 8:5-10)
“When I heard from the doctors that there was no more salvation for me, which I had already experienced myself, I knew: now I will reach the goal of my life, the Christ. Either in death or in the spirit world. White starlight was around me, and I was thinking of the fevered son of Capernaum’s chieftain. Science dawned on me: when you now see the Christ, he can also restore earth life to you. There were energies buzzing next to me and a fire figure appeared next to my bed. Such strength emanated from him that I believed I could not bear it. It was like over-tensioning the atmosphere because of the pressing of the ether. I felt as if that would tear me apart and heard the words: Go, your faith has helped you …
It was a very white silence around me, and glittering life entered me from there. The pains were gone. The doctor came and assumed that this condition was agony. But life continued to shine, and when my husband asked what had happened, I could only say that in the New Testament he had to seek out the healing of Capernaum. As of this hour, there was only a common solution for us. Me and my house want to serve the Lord. My illness was gone and life took a different direction. But as bright was the light that I had seen, so dark was the time I had to live in the following years. It was like I was going to die. For years now I had experienced the terrible of death in all phases.”
Her brow bone, which was just above the root of the nose, literally shattered. Years later, bone splinters that had grown out had to be removed using tweezers. With the forehead chakra released in this radical way, her clairvoyant experiences increased in number & intensity.
What is expressed in this event? Perhaps people who are associated with Christ on earth had a role to play in preparing for His return in the etheric starting in the 20th century; a karmic bond that is revealed in this time of the Second Coming. Rudolf Steiner talked about the youth of Nain, who was raised from the dead by Christ & so was initiated into a task for the future of humanity. Steiner also pointed out the connection between the resurrected Lazarus John & the teacher of humanity, Christian Rosenkreutz. This is also the time when Steiner describes Christ becoming the Lord of karma.
At the ‘Turning Point of Time’ the apostles gathered by Christ were the 1st to be inaugurated in this new impulse, there must be anthroposophers starting in the 30’s & into our time now that are able to receive the inspiration of Christ, now as Lord of Karma. Anthroposophy wants to be a movement of people who work to restore their karma. Steiner tells us: Spiritual science “imposes enormous responsibility upon us, for it prepares for the concrete event of the reappearance of Christ.”
It is known that Steiner took actual people as examples for some of the characters in his mystery dramas. Perhaps Johanna was the model for Theodora?
According to Steiner, Johanna had an awakened consciousness that would become normal perhaps a 1000 years in the future! Perhaps this ‘premature birth’ was what caused her much pain in her life…? And yet, Steiner called the figure next to the sick bed of Johanna the Christ power.
In one of the conversations with Steiner, he also warned that Johanna was facing great Luciferic dangers, but that she had special qualities – the iron of Mars, that could protect her from this. He called her ‘the Iron Countess’.
In 1915, Johanna started to write down a series of imaginations that she received. This lead to a book that describes the fortunes of a grail knight going through a mental training: the book Gralburg. In the preface she writes the following about it:
In these imaginations my own experience in full reality passes by. It is lived more real than earthly events are experienced. As the images are there, that’s how I experienced them. Often the images and words sounded strange and inexplicable, I did not understand them and I do not understand much of them nowadays, but I could not change anything, because I wanted to stay with the truth. Often the end of an image was added as an explanation only after years. Real spirit beings met the spirit student, and they addressed him in real words. These spiritual words have actually been spoken to him.
As far as I can judge, these things have lived in the astral. The astral, however, takes place in the interior of the earth in the direction of midnight. This astral is invisible in itself and fine visible form force expresses itself in the periphery of the earth, in the ether world. That which happens invisibly in the depths, is imprinted in the ether and comes to visibility, and what I saw there I wrote down.
This book cannot be judged by a literary standard. I wrote it down for myself and I don’t feel the need for others to read it. If it were just me, I would put it in a desk drawer; and then it can be read after my death or not. And when I am asked now, yes, why do you spend it anyway, then I can only answer – not for my sake, but so that the others hear of the figure so lovingly striding through the hall.
Imagine a fine brilliance of tender sunlight flowing from his soul Imagine a pair of warm eyes, so full of love that you start to glow, and you kneel Imagine a mouth from which truth springs as if from a deep source the deity itself arises, it sounds so beautiful, that forever you would like to listen to this voice in reverence.
Imagine his hands caressing your hair with a gesture that heals all suffering. Yes, under their light springs the new life we seek! Imagine a ruler striding like this and highest heavenly threads are for him and where his foot goes is light that shows us the right way. Do you see his garment shining from afar then the fire starts to burn in your heart, it is so beautiful that you cannot comprehend it.
And he sees your suffering and he approaches you which makes your heart completely still. And gently, like the song of angelic children, the air that blows towards you is so lovely.
You can put your head on his knee in quiet humility and deep peace comes into you. The sun radiates from his holy body and sun flows over your mind, and you see jubilantly in the golden distance, your homeland, where he draws you.
Later she adds to this hymn : “At the sight of the Nazarene standing before me, written down in a short moment”.
Through the book: Koberwitz 1924, Geburtsstunde einer neuen Landwirtschaft, “moment of birth of a new agriculture”, many people learn the name of the Keyserlingk family. At the time, Koberwitz was an estate owned by the family, near Breslau.
At Pentecost in 1924, a gathering took place here in the penultimate year before Rudolf Steiner’s untimely death, to which many attendees have fond memories. From the descriptions of the different souls you can get the feeling that there was a true cosmopolitan Pentecostal Spirit. As the title of the book indicates, this was also the time and place where the birth of biodynamic agriculture can be situated.
But more happened there in the days of June 7-17, 1924. For example, it was the first time the Johani Epistle was pronounced at the altar, during the Christian Consecration Service (established 2 years earlier). The impression arises that in Koberwitz a successful meeting between the royal & the priestly streams took place. In total there were 120 people, many with an agricultural background, but also many who attended, for example, the evening lectures on karma or the Eurythmy performances, such as Eliza von Moltke, Rittelmeyer, Bock, Wachsmuth, Koschützki, Marie Steiner, Vreede & many others. So these days were busy with all kinds of activities. It was later discovered that at night Steiner wrote whole parts of his autobiography, which appeared shortly afterwards in the weekly Das Goetheanum & were later compiled into My Way of Life, he also received & answered countless mail correspondences.
In addition to a number of eurhythmy performances & esoteric hours, karma lectures were also held in Breslau in the evening. In addition, a large number of people had personal conversations with Steiner. It is therefore surprising to hear that Steiner, who made an extremely tired impression on arrival, gradually became more vital. From those 12 special days around Rudolf Steiner arose many personal memories of a number of participants.
Here’s a good example of ‘how karma works’. In principle, the course was only intended for people with an agricultural background. Young Wilhelm Rath, as one of the initiators of the youth movement, passed by Koberwitz alone to deliver a package to Steiner, some notes by Walter Johannes Stein, in which he describes his own spiritual experiences for Rudolf Steiner. The state post is not the appropriate means for distributing such documents so WJ Stein asked Rath to hand them over personally. Because of this, Rath was then allowed to attend the entire Steiner course, although Wachsmuth wanted to deny him that at first. This later turns out to be an important turning point in his professional work,
The book Koberwitz 1924 not only gives a nice impression of the conference but also of Johanna herself. We read that she played a harmonium for the guests, that she & her husband were the perfect hosts & that she personally took care of the flowers & plants in the castle park. The Staff loved her. A chambermaid, who also wrote a contribution in the book singing her praises.
A life motto for the count’s couple was: Founding places of love and peace, where the Christ can be resurrected – this was engraved on a memorial for Steiner after he died.
The image of a fairytale-like white mosque with a minaret appeared before Johanna’s eye, & she heard the word Bosphorus. According to her, this was the answer to a question she had been dealing with for a long time. It was 1925 & Rudolf Steiner had already died. Later on Christmas 1925, she was with severe pneumonia in Sonnenhof in Arlesheim, where Ita Wegman nursed her. There, Mieta Waller asked her if she could use her clairvoyance to help find the Palladium in Constantinople. After all, legend tells that Emperor Constantine buried the Palladium under a large column. This question was the start of a long search that would be continued by her son Adalbert.
The Palladium has been called the greatest solar gem on Earth by Steiner, & world development depends on whether this underground sun-sanctuary is illuminated by “the sun of the west” – the new light of human thought. A truly cryptic description! Especially since Steiner also indicated that it would be an object buried somewhere. The comparison can then be made between the physically present cup of the last supper & the transcendental grail.
She made a trip to Constantinople, to Hagia Sophia & experienced all kinds of things that are described in a diary, including that she had seen this mosque in the image of the ghost. Physical indications & images not yet understood alternated. However, the Palladium was not found. It is questionable whether the Palladium might have been found spiritually. However, she said, this cannot be discussed it is “a question for the future”.
In the Achmedie Imperial Palace, she received gruesome images inscribed in the ether of the Council of Constantinople in 869 AD. She recognized ahrimanic inspirations. Steiner often spoke of this council where the “spirit” of the human being was abolished. She experienced what Steiner called a second Golgotha & the moment when the karma of the people began to become disordered.
In Hagia Sophia, however, she experienced the luminous presence of Christ & of of Michael, as the sunrise of a new dawn.
It is a risk when people make statements about what they consider to be their previous incarnations. Because the chance of mistakes & projection of wishes is high & the reader may be led astray by such incorrect information. It was therefore not Johanna’s aim that the relevant notes of her own research in her diaries would be made public during her lifetime. She did, however, discuss it with Steiner & her son Adalbert. He decided to publish the notes after her death, fully aware of the problems that this could entail.
In 1922 she visited a forest in Rawitz where she had been as a child. “When I arrived, the spirits of the trees and shrubs on this familiar road back started to speak to me, to my surprise. But what they told me this time was not pleasant to me. They told me: “You are free now, you have to deliver us, we are bound to these trees.” And they added, I had tied them to this place myself in a past life. I said to them, “Your trees are not old at all, how can I have met you before?” But they answer: Our fathers were already here, and in them our spirits have inherited themselves. – You shouldn’t leave until you deliver us”.
It is then explained to her how she could accomplish this salvation by making 3 crosses on the trunk while invoking the Father, Son & Holy Spirit. So she does this & from each one a strip of light is released, which then, according to her observation, dissolves in the light of Christ.
Shortly before, she had had “images” in the same environment of a man who lived several hundred years ago, who loved to be in nature & had conversations with nature spirits. She had the impression that the man was also involved in magic. He spoke to her : “I am glad that you are here, I have also come to see you. You must carry on with the work that I have begun. I will show you what happened here, and you must then free what I have banned. “
It is characteristic of Johanna that she told Steiner this kind of experience. She was not yet sure about the meaning. Steiner confirmed that this man with faustic traits was a previous incarnation of hers. He had banished the elemental beings in the trees. That is why she now had to free them herself.
In an earlier conversation where Eliza von Moltke was also present, Steiner had said, “The countess once experienced that earth life is spiritual death.” Without Steiner’s help, she probably wouldn’t have come to these insights.
A central theme with Johanna that she always discussed with Steiner (she has had about twenty-eight apprenticeships with him) is Shamballah or the golden land, as she calls it. She related that to the moment when the blood of Christ flowed into the earth initiating a new solar globe. She saw out of the earth’s core, a golden fire in the earth’s depth. Like Ptolemy she called this the primal sun. This connected her with Empedocles who plunged into the fire of Mount Etna.
She described it in the following way in a question to Steiner: “…originally there was the fire and the light. These lived together in a deep harmony. Then the light rejected the power of the fire, and the smoke, which could no longer rise in the light, returned and covered the fire, and so the primeval fire was covered with a layer of ash. This axis is the mineral of the Earth. At first people saw through it to their primal home, the primal sun, but the earth became more and more dense and the smoke darkened more and more. Man seemed to be separated from the primeval sun (which is paradise) by the mineral layer. With this primeval sun which has been revived by the Christ, man must try to unite again.”
Steiner confirmed to her that this primordial sun is also the land of Shamballah, where the initiates of all time took their inspiration and what will become visible to all people in the future. It is closely related to the etheric second coming of the Christ & His work on a new heaven & a new earth in which people can play an active role.
Steiner spoke repeatedly of the Iron Count & Countess, not only because the Koberwitz land which was iron rich. He wanted Johanna to conquer & free her clairvoyance with her iron will, which was linked to her innate clairvoyance, & also from her dependence on Steiner’s influence. Before she met Steiner, Johanna had a life where everything came to her. Spiritual guidance had provided for her fortunes. This would change soon.
They were able to remain in Koberwitz for 4years after 1924. A movement started immediately on several fronts, reinforced after Steiner’s death in 1925, that came to destroy the new biodynamic impulse. The fertilizer industry, including IG Farben, felt threatened by this new impulse. They wanted to buy a booklet describing the agricultural course for a large sum of money. But Carl declined, partly because it was decided to test it in practice before the course content is published. In the company where Carl worked with several co-owners, tensions grew & he had to leave the field in 1928. They also left Koberwitz. Shortly after, he died en route to Dornach. According to Johanna because of a broken heart.
Not much is known about her life after that, except that it was difficult. In 1941 she was captured by the Gestapo, who interrogated her for days. She saw a figure next to the German officer who was closely following what was being said. But she was not tempted to give in to this demonic being. Unfortunately it is not known how Johanna experienced the years 1933-1945.
After 1945 she could no longer stay in Poland & fled to the west where she ended up in Stuttgart, completely destitute & incognito. In 1949 the book Koberwitz was published as a private edition. In the years before her death she went blind.
Just before this book went to press, I learned that a group of people is publishing At this time she wrote about Kaspar Hauser. She also wrote about her relationship with Steiner after his death: “While during the life of Rudolf Steiner one could still live in the sphere of his personal closeness without great effort, it was no longer possible after his death. After the death hour of 1925, there were still encounters in the astral for me. But I think that this is happening more and more at a distance. Was the atmosphere of the earth obscured by what was preparing for threats there in Germany? We were alone, as if deserted. It was as if there was an impenetrable dark night in the otherwise bright atmosphere”.
This shows how difficult it was to hold the Pentecostal substance of Koberwitz in the dark period now dawning.
“It was on the morning of Rudolf Steiner’s cremation, which I did not go to. The teacher’s body was still laid out in his studio, where the aura of the beloved teacher appeared next to me. I was told to write. I took paper and pen and the following words came from his presence. Often I could not write quickly enough, then paused and waited until I was back, as Rudolf Steiner used to do when he dictated to me.
“My job has ended….What I could give the people who were ready for it, I gave them…I am going, because I found no ears that could hear the spiritual word behind the word…I am going, because I found no eyes that could see the ghosts behind the earth images….I go because I found no people who could realize my will… The mysteries remain hidden until I come back. I will come back and reveal the mysteries when I have succeeded in creating an altar, a cultic place for human souls, in spirit worlds. Then I’ll come back. Then I will continue to reveal the mysteries.”
“Those are to blame for my death, which have held back the culture of the heart. Had people pushed through their hearts into the depths, they would have found the strength for the challenges of this time.”
There are those who do not consider these statements to come from Steiner but rather as projections from Johanna herself, or from the adversarial forces speaking. It is left to the reader to judge.
We do know that Rudolf Steiner is able to teach his students in the spirit body, as indicated in the mystery dramas.
A short conversation with Steiner in 1924, before his death, will conclude this biography for now.
Johanna: “Mankind is spoiled anyway [miscarriages]“. Steiner: “Yes, you can say that.” Johanna: “But what will happen at the end of the century?” Steiner in despair: “I don’t know either – but Ahriman is also part of Christ.”
***
R. Steiner, in:The Gospel of Matthew(Zeist 2003, GA 123), lecture, Sept. 10. 1910
M. von Miltitz, in Foreword by J. von Keyserlingk,Die Reise nach Byzanz-Das Palladium des Sieges(Basel 1991)
Erlöste Elemente(Stuttgart 1991)
Palladiump. 16
Adalbert (died 23-10-1993), besides an enthusiastic promoter of biodynamic agriculture, also a doctor and researcher of ancient mystery places, wroteVergessene Kulturen im Monte Gargano(Nürnberg 1968) andUnd sie erstarrten in Stein(Basel 1983).
Die Reise nach Byzanz-Das Palladium des Sieges,p. 16. InIn the Gospels there are several references to Capernaum and a healing of a sick person through Christ. Johanna talks about a chief and his sick son. Matthew 8 speaks of a chief of Capernaum and his sick servant; in Luke 7 about a chief and his sick slave ; in John 4 about a courtier and his sick son.
Koberwitz 1924, Geburtsstunde einer neuen Landwirtschaft(Privatdruck 1985) p. 25f
InIJsselaarde. Magazine to deepen the relationship with the living environment(Sept. 1999)
Wiedergerufen vom Herrn des Schicksals and Falter und Bluete (with poems) (Dornach 1998)
KC Markides, The magician of Strovolos (Deventer 1995), see also the article by G. Zwahlen about Daskalos inDas Goetheanum,number 34, Dec. 3. 1995
GA 118, Jan 25. 1910
The Gospel according to Matthew(Zeist 2003, GA 123), lecture 10 Sept. 1910
Gralburg(Stuttgart 1968, antiquarian still available sporadically). It was thrown into the lap many years ago through a book flea market. That eventually led to this article. Steiner already thought that the book should be made public because it demonstrates how an individual path of development can proceed.
H. Giersch (ed.)Das Ätherische Christus-Wirken. Rudolf Steiner über die Wiederkunft Christivan Harold Giersch (Dornach 1991)
G. Hillerdal and B. Gustafsson,Christ experiences today(Bergen op Zoom 2002); HW. Schroeder, On the second coming of Christ (Zeist 2000); HP van Moons,Coming and Second Coming – About the second coming of Christ and the coming of anti-christ(Zeist 1999); G. Bossis,My shadow, that is your neighbor(Zeist 2001); G. Goelzer and M. Friederich,Falter und Bluete – Christuswort und Christerkenntnis(Dornach 1994); Wiedergerufen vom Herrn des Schicksals, A1 Die Samariterin am Brunnen(Dornach 1998)
Fertile agriculture(Zeist 1992,GA 327)
The Aya (or: Hagia) Sophia, completed in 537 on the site where a church was built in 360, became a mosque in 1453 and has been a museum since 1932.
H. Oehms,Know your karma – Karma insight and self-development(Zeist 2000); F. Berger,fellow sufferers, coherence between different lives on the track(Zeist 2000); J. Saether,Wandeln unter unsichtbaren Menschen(Stuttgart 1999). About learning to look at people in order to place them in a spiritual context, without speaking directly about previous incarnations, see: A. Koopmans,Kijk op karma(Zeist 2002) andPractical human science(Zutphen 2004)
J.Ben Aharon,The spiritual event of the 20th century. An imagination. The occult dimension of the years 1933-1945(Zeist 1996)
R. Steiner (GA 118) nomination Munich March 15, 1910
The years 1933-1945 could have been illuminated by her from her clairvoyant fireplaces. You can suspect that J. Ben Aharon experienced this lack as well and that is why he connects with Johanna in his book about those years.
In various terms this theme is mentioned “altar in the spiritual world”, as is also the case in the speech for the youth in Koberwitz:“spiritual light will only come in this century, if Michael succeeds in the way in the astral light to the altar where the flame burns that Ahriman fears. ” Also inHelmuth von Moltke 1848-1916. Dokumente zu seinem Wirken(Basel 1993) March 27, 1919
In:Koberwitz 1924, p. 177
These statements (as well as the following) make it clear that Steiner saw a bright future for mankind looming. In lectures (GA 346) for the priests of the Christian Community he mentioned the year 1933 in which the apocalyptic beast would stir again. –
This Friday, March 19th at 6 pm PT, 7 pm MT, 8 pm CT, 9 pm ET we will be speaking with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg
“Holding the Chalice of Balance with Archangel Raphael – An exploration of the Vernal Equinox” with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg
At the time of the Spring Equinox, Raphael, Archangel of the East & the Element of Air, is active as the great Cosmic Physician. The Easter-Tide works on us thru the spiritual healing of inspiration, provided by Raphael who is now in the etheric heights, waving a helix of shining vitality. Raphael uses the caduceus as a wand, to mingle air & fire, water & earth, transmuting them into healing forces; working & weaving in the cosmos, & entering into our conscious inspiration of light. Yes this is a goal of our human evolution, to be able to breathe light. Spiritual Science calls it ‘moral breathing’ – to ‘inhale evil & exhale the good’. Could the Corona crisis be calling us to this task? We have a powerful ally to assist us every year at this special time of balance.
For more info. contact Front Range Anthroposophical Cafe – Tom Altgelt altgelt@indra.com
***
Daniel Ospina
The 8-Fold Path to the Easter Elementals
Holy Week 2021 (March 28 – April 4): Starting on Palm Sunday then thru-out Holy Week including Easter Morning, we will meet every day on Zoom at 10:10 am (Central Time) to create together a Thought-Seed Egregore based on the Herbert Hahn Verse
“When I think light, my soul shines, When my soul shines, the earth is a star, When the earth is a star, then I am, a true human being”
Sophie Takata
& then we will take turns sharing the indications for that day from Rudolf Steiner / The Buddha’s 8 –fold Path, known as the ‘Weekday Exercises’ (let me know if you would like to lead one of the days? (5 min) HOLY WEEK CHART
Palm SUNDAY Resolves or ‘RIGHT JUDGMENT.’ having been formed independently of sympathies and antipathies.
Holy MONDAY Talking – ‘RIGHT WORD.’
Holy TUESDAY External actions- ‘RIGHT DEED.’
Holy WEDNESDAY The ordering of life. – ‘RIGHT STANDPOINT.’
Maundy THURSDAY Human Endeavour. – ‘TO LET ALL THE EXERCISES BECOME A HABIT.’
Good FRIDAY The endeavor to learn as much as possible from life. – ‘RIGHT MEMORY.’ (Remembering what has been learned from experiences).
Holy SATURDAY To pay attention to one’s ideas. – ‘RIGHT OPINION.’
The octave of the New Sun EASTER SUNDAY To turn one’s gaze inwards – ‘RIGHT EXAMINATION.’
Whoever is holding the leading thoughts for that day will tie it into some 5-10 min. artistic exercise based on the indications
Group sharing (5 min)
We close with the ‘reversed’ Hahn verse. I am a True Human Being For the Earth is a Star The Earth is a Star When I Think Light When I think Light My Soul Shines
*Dear friends, please join the call at 10:05 am to get settled in so we can begin the Thought-Seed promptly at 10:10 am Topic: The 8-Fold Path thru Holy Week 2021 Time: Starting on Palm Sunday Mar 28 – thru Easter Morning, 2021 10:10 AM Central Time (US and Canada) Every day, 8 occurrence(s) Mar 28, 2021 10:10 AM Mar 29, 2021 10:10 AM Mar 30, 2021 10:10 AM Mar 31, 2021 10:10 AM Apr 1, 2021 10:10 AM Apr 2, 2021 10:10 AM Apr 3, 2021 10:10 AM Apr 4, 2021 10:10 AM
Dial by your location – Meeting ID: 705 293 1041 – Passcode: 776400 – Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/a961qZZhF
Events & Festivals Committee of the Rudolf Steiner Branch of The Anthroposophical Society, 4249 North Lincoln Ave. Chicago, IL 60618 (map) https://donate.rschicago.org/
“A mind is like a parachute. It doesn’t work if it is not open.” ~Frank Zappa
Today is ‘Tune in Tuesday‘ – my weekly musing shared with the folks working with the 6 basic or essential exercises. This week we started on the 4th which is Open-Mindedness. And I immediately thought of this quote from Frank Zappa.
by Julieta Linny age 20
I just completed a 5 day journey with the YIP 13 Yippies -the International Youth Initiative Program in Yarna Sweden, which was entitled ‘Are you Listening? During this conference I saw 1st hand how being open-minded requires deep listening. Besides entering deeply into my presentation about the Sophia, they asked me to speak about the 10:10 Thought-Seed Initiative that a group of us started last October to create a willed visitation of the Earth as a Sun & the human being as stars radiating light; & they came up with all kinds of variations & new ways of living into this imagination, that blew me away.
D.B. Chan
And another thing I learned from them is that to become free acute thinkers we must dare to challenge the accepted opinions that come from our societal echo chambers – To let go of our righteous indignation. This helps us restore the art of informed, intelligent & enlightened thought – Which allows conscious conversation, true communion & gives us the possibility to actually learn something new. So that was a blessing.
And to round off this Tune in Tuesday – Those who are familiar with Eastern Philosophy have probably heard of Zen Koans – short stories designed to provoke more questions than answers, to test a student’s progress in the Zen practice. A Koan is a simple story with complex meanings. This one was often told by Bruce Lee.
Ty Kee
Once upon a time, there was a wise Zen master. People from far & near would seek his counsel & ask for his guidance. Many would come & ask him to teach them, enlighten them with the wisdom of Zen. He never turned any serious student away.
One day an important western professor, a man used to commanding others came to visit the master. “I have come today to ask you to teach me about Zen. Fill my mind with enlightenment.” The tone of the important man’s voice was one used to getting his own way.
The teacher bows & begins to share many philosophies. But the learned man continually interrupts the teacher to give his opinion about what he thinks is correct or not.
The Zen master smiles & says: ‘Let us discuss the matter over a cup of tea’. When the tea was served the master poured his visitor a cup. He poured & he poured & the tea rose to the rim & began to spill over the table & finally onto the expensive suit of the wealthy man.
Finally the visitor shouted, “Enough. You are spilling the tea all over. Can’t you see the cup is full?”
The master stopped pouring & smiled at his guest. “Yes, this is true. And you are like this cup of tea, so full that nothing more can be added. Come back to me when the cup is empty. Come back to me with an open mind. If you do not first empty your cup, how can you taste my tea?”
Such a perfect story. And to picture the great Kung Fu master Bruce Lee living into it makes it even more real.
Yes, how can we be open & tolerant in not just our thinking, but also in our soul forces of feeling & willing? – This will bring us true freedom; which allows the space for love to become manifest in our every thought, word & deed.
See you in the striving. Blessings Dear friends, & Peace ~hag
***
https://earthsky.org/
9 March 2021 – “Speaking with the Stars”: In the predawn sky on March the old moon will be waning, appearing as a thinner crescent each day. Bella Luna serves as your guide to the three morning planets – Mercury (occult Venus), Jupiter & Saturn – which are also up before the Sun now, in the east near the sunrise point, but buried in twilight glare. But look especially on March 9th, when the lit side of the waning crescent moon will point right at this lineup of planets. Jupiter, the brightest planet, might be easiest to see. It shines between Mercury & Saturn, with Mercury at bottom & Saturn at top. Jupiter, the most brilliant morning planet, outshines the others. Although Mercury is a touch brighter than Saturn, Saturn will probably be the easier of these two worlds to see, as Saturn rises first, followed by Jupiter & then Mercury.
We are looking forward to seeing you at The Anthroposophical Café!
Speaker: Hazel Archer-Ginsberg
When: Friday, March 19, 2021 at 5 pm (PT) 7 pm (MT) 8 pm (CT) 9 pm (ET)
Where: Zoom (code coming soon)
Holding the Chalice of Balance with Archangel Raphael – An exploration of the Vernal Equinox with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg*
At the time of the Spring Equinox, Raphael, Archangel of the East & the Element of Air, is active as the great Cosmic Physician. The Easter-Tide works on us thru the spiritual healing of inspiration, when we can open to the crowning of all truths found in the healing breath of humankind. In the Spring, the Easter event is recalled in many cultures & although the Mystery of Golgotha entered into the evolution of the Earth as a once-and-for-all event, it is renewed in us each year.
Holy Week 2021 (March 28 – April 4): Starting on Palm Sunday then thru-out Holy Week including Easter Morning, we will meet every day on Zoom at 10:10 am (Central Time) to create together a Thought-Seed Egregore based on the Herbert Hahn Verse
“When I think light, my soul shines, When my soul shines, the earth is a star, When the earth is a star, then I am, a true human being”
& then we will take turns sharing the indications for that day from Rudolf Steiner / The Buddha’s 8 –fold Path, known as the ‘Weekday Exercises’ (let me know if you would like to lead one of the days? (5 min) Holy Week chart
Palm SUNDAY Resolves or ‘RIGHT JUDGMENT.’ having been formed independently of sympathies and antipathies.
Holy MONDAY Talking – ‘RIGHT WORD.’
Holy TUESDAY External actions- ‘RIGHT DEED.’
Holy WEDNESDAY The ordering of life. – ‘RIGHT STANDPOINT.’
Maundy THURSDAY Human Endeavour. – ‘TO LET ALL THE EXERCISES BECOME A HABIT.’
Good FRIDAY The endeavor to learn as much as possible from life. – ‘RIGHT MEMORY.’ (Remembering what has been learned from experiences).
Holy SATURDAY To pay attention to one’s ideas. – ‘RIGHT OPINION.’
The octave of the New Sun EASTER SUNDAY To turn one’s gaze inwards – ‘RIGHT EXAMINATION.’
Whoever is holding the leading thoughts for that day will tie it into some 5-10 min. artistic exercise based on the indications
Group sharing (5 min)
We close with the ‘reversed’ Hahn verse. I am a True Human Being For the Earth is a Star The Earth is a Star When I Think Light When I think Light My Soul Shines
Easter Sunday – 4 April 2021, in person at the Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago & online 2 pm – 4 pm Central Time.
Group Eurythmy with Mary Ruud
Hazel Archer – The octave of the New Sun
Keynote with Ines Katharina (Bee Keeper, Founder of the Biodynamic Emerald Honeybee Sanctuary, Waldorf Teacher) Ines will connect the Easter Thought with the Elemental Beings & the flight of the Queen Bee.
Mary Ruud will give us a performance of ‘Rock Spring Wonder’
We close with singing ‘Now the green Blade Riseth’
Potluck Social Time in the Schreinerei – Please bring food & drink to share
$10 Suggested Donation (can’t make it? or joining us online? please consider supporting this event, Thank you)
*Dear friends, please join the call at 10:05 am to get settled in so we can begin the Thought-Seed promptly at 10:10 am Topic: The 8-Fold Path thru Holy Week 2021 Time: Starting on Palm Sunday Mar 28 – thru Easter Morning, 2021 10:10 AM Central Time (US and Canada) Every day, 8 occurrence(s) Mar 28, 2021 10:10 AM Mar 29, 2021 10:10 AM Mar 30, 2021 10:10 AM Mar 31, 2021 10:10 AM Apr 1, 2021 10:10 AM Apr 2, 2021 10:10 AM Apr 3, 2021 10:10 AM Apr 4, 2021 10:10 AM
Dial by your location Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/aX8X3nrr3 Meeting ID: 956 3344 4828 – Passcode: 425730
Events & Festivals Committee of the Rudolf Steiner Branch of The Anthroposophical Society, 4249 North Lincoln Ave. Chicago, IL 60618 (map) https://donate.rschicago.org/
***
WAYS TO ENGAGE:
The ARC (Anthroposophical Resorce Center in Atlanta) is inviting you to a Six Basic Exercise Practice Group
Time: weekdays 9 am PT / 11am CT / 12:00 PM ET
Each weekday you are invited to join in a 15 minute practice group focusing on Rudolf Steiner’s foundational exercises. We begin the time each day with a 5 minute leading thought focusing one aspect of the practice. We will follow that with a 5 minute period in which we turn off our cameras and practice on our own. After the five minute bell, we take 1-2 minutes to journal about our experience and the end the call with a 3 minute closing thought. Come when you can, and leave when you must.
Wednesdays 9:30-11:00am CT – True and False Paths in Spiritual Investigation, by Rudolf Steiner. We incorporate ‘The Calendar of the Soul’, eurythmy, focused discussion and seasonal artistic explorations in our study. All are Welcome. Contact Hazel Archer-Ginsberg. Hazel@ReverseRitual.comWe meet in person in the Branch Library or join via Zoom Meetinghttps://zoom.us/j/98689103462’Meeting ID: 986 8910 3462
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(CLOSED) Fridays 12noon – 1:30pm CT. The Esoteric Path Through the Nineteen Class Lessons by Sergei O. Prokofieff. A serious study for Members of the School of Spiritual Science. Contact Hazel Archer-Ginsberg. Hazel@ReverseRitual.com
Tuesday 23 March 6:30-8:30pm Appreciating Our Differences Through Looking at Temperaments – The Center for Biography and Social Art warmly invites members of your community to attend this workshop in person or online. “How do we solve the riddle which each individual presents to us? We solve it by approaching each person in such a way that harmony results between them and us.” – Rudolf Steiner. Register in advance for this meeting:https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUrdeyvrzgqE9AnBYQ3hIc5KuxMvZa0rmW_ Warmly, Kathleen,center4biography@gmail.comCenter for Biography & Social Artbiographysocialart.org
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28 March 28 – 4 April, 10:10 am CT – Holy Week & Easter Festival 2021 The 8-Fold Path to the Easter Elementals. Starting on Palm Sunday then thru-out Holy Week, including Easter Morning, we will meet every day on Zoom at 10:10 am CT to create together a Thought-Seed based on a Herbert Hahn Verse “When I think light, my soul shines, When my soul shines, the earth is a star, When the earth is a star, then I am, a true human being. We will then work with indications for that day from Rudolf Steiner’s/The Buddha’s 8 –fold Path, known as the ‘Weekday Exercises’ (5 min) Holy Week chart. $10 Suggested Donation.Contact Hazel Archer-Ginsberg. Hazel@ReverseRitual.comJoin Zoom Meeting https://zoom.us/j/95633444828?pwd=Wk56K08vK2dNQUhhK0Q2S09zQWJrQT09Meeting ID: 956 3344 4828 – Passcode: bee
At every crossroad, be prepared to bump into wonder. Stand on every milestone in the triumph of discovery wrought thru the little things – take every step with reverence, ever aware that at every turning point, there is a stumbling into an opportunity disguised as a problem.
So whenever you want to take a magic twisty leap into the big fresh future, be willing to engage in one last wrestling match with the past – often accompanied by a slap in the face from the future.
~hag
The 18th day of Lenten-Tide – 1st reflection from the 2021 YIP 13 Initiative Forum = ‘Change begins with Listening’ (So much to digest as I rest from this powerful 5 day Conference – stay tuned)
7 March 2021 – “Speaking with the Stars”: The brightest asteroid, 4 Vesta, is just past opposition in Leo and shining at a binocular-easy magnitude 5.8. Use the finder chart with the article about Vesta in the March Sky & Telescope, page 48. If you were to swap Vesta in for our Moon, “the asteroid would look like a baby white potato with an apparent diameter of 4.7 arcminutes, about half the width of the Moon’s Mare Imbrium. But Vesta would look spotlight-bright because it’s nearly four times as reflective as our satellite neighbor.”
“How is it they live in such harmony, the billions of stars, when most human beings can barely go a minute without declaring war in their minds?” ~Thomas Aquinas
321 – Emperor Constantine I decrees that the dies Solis Invicti (Sun-day) is the day of rest in the Empire
1274 – Deathday of Thomas Aquinas, a Dominican Friar & Theologian, “The prince of Scholastics”. Aquinas, who is most renowned for his Five Ways of Proving the Existence of God, believed that both faith and reason discover truth, a conflict between them being impossible since they both originate in God. Nickname in school=The ‘dumb ox’ – also known as the ‘Angelic Doctor’. “It must be realized that Thomas Aquinas, in the 13th Century, attained the concepts and ideas he elaborated in his writings in a completely different way from the way ideas are acquired today. One must think of his books as being inspired by a spirit from the Hierarchy of the Angeloi and that he recorded what came from a higher consciousness” ~Rudolf Steiner, The Karma of Materialism
Believing that reason can, in principle, lead the mind to God, Aquinas defended reason’s legitimacy, especially in the works of Aristotle. The philosophy of Aquinas continues to offer insights into many lingering problems in Metaphysics, the Philosophy of Mind, & the Philosophy of Religion & Ethics.
In Rudolf Steiner’s historic sketch of the life of thought in the Middle Ages, he shows how Albertus Magnus ( an earlier incarnation of Ita Wegman) & Thomas Aquinas ( an earlier incarnation of Aristotle & Rudolf Steiner himself) & the Scholastics of the 12th century gave an impetus towards what in the twentieth century has come to be known as Spiritual Science, or Anthroposophy.
“The Middle Ages would not have produced what is called Scholasticism — the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas and Albertus Magnus and the other Scholastics — if this philosophy, this world conception, with all its social consequences, had not been inspired by the most important thought of the Church, by the Easter thought. In the vision of the descending Christ, Who lives for a time in man on Earth and then goes through the Resurrection, that soul impulse was given which led to the particular relation between faith and science, between knowledge and revelation which was agreed upon by the Scholastics. That out of man himself, only knowledge of the sensible world can be acquired, whereas everything connected with the super-sensible world has to be gained through revelation — this was determined basically by the way the Easter thought followed upon the Christmas thought.” ~Rudolf Steiner, The Cycle of the Year as Breathing-Process of the Earth
“Thomas Aquinas made himself thoroughly familiar with the world conception of Aristotle, who becomes, as it were, his master in the life of thought…For centuries, he is il maestro di color che sanno, the master of those who know, as Dante expresses the veneration for Aristotle in the Middle Ages.”
“Thomas Aquinas had intended on the one hand to investigate the world through physical research and intellectual knowledge but, on the other hand, that he had wanted to supplement this intellectual knowledge with the truths of revelation. But he had done that precisely to gain access to the unifying principle of the world.” ~Rudolf Steiner, Dornach, 12 June 1923
“Of the great Dominicans, St. Thomas Aquinas is especially noteworthy because in him the influence of the astral body of Christ was manifest to a high degree.”
“St. Francis of Assisi and Thomas Aquinas had copies of the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth woven into their souls, and it is this fact that allowed them to be such dynamic teachers. They worked from a sphere in which Christ had once lived.
In some cases external events such as natural catastrophes or similar things enhance this weaving of spiritual bodies into the soul of the recipient. It is said of St. Thomas Aquinas that lightning struck and killed his little sister in the room where he happened to be standing, but spared him. He interpreted this lightning bolt next to him to the effect that elemental forces were necessary to help him take up the copy of the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth. Elisabeth of Thüringen also had an imprint of the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth in her soul”. ~ Rudolf Steiner, The Principle of Spiritual Economy, Rome, March 28, 1909
1792 – Birthday of English astronomer Sir John Frederick William Herschel. In 1864, he published the General Catalogue of Nebulae & Clusters, which astronomers still use today
1876 – Alexander Graham Bell is granted a patent for an invention he calls the “telephone
1913 – The Berlin chapter of the Theosophical Society, of which Rudolf Steiner was president & Marie von Sivers secretary, is officially annulled.
1965 – Bloody Sunday: A group of 600 civil rights marchers is brutally attacked by state and local police in Selma, Alabama
Norah McGinnis
POD (Poem Of the Day)
~I wander in the valley of The Word Searching for the Sun inside… ~hag
We are looking forward to seeing you at The Anthroposophical Café!
Speaker: Hazel Archer-Ginsberg
When: Friday, March 19, 2021 at 5 pm (PT) 7 pm (MT) 8 pm (CT) 9 pm (ET)
Where: Zoom (code coming soon)
Holding the Chalice of Balance with Archangel Raphael – An exploration of the Vernal Equinox with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg*
At the time of the Spring Equinox, Raphael, Archangel of the East & the Element of Air, is active as the great Cosmic Physician. The Easter-Tide works on us thru the spiritual healing of inspiration, when we can open to the crowning of all truths found in the healing breath of humankind. In the Spring, the Easter event is recalled in many cultures & although the Mystery of Golgotha entered into the evolution of the Earth as a once-and-for-all event, it is renewed in us each year.
Holy Week 2021 (March 28 – April 4): Starting on Palm Sunday then thru-out Holy Week including Easter Morning, we will meet every day on Zoom at 10:10 am (Central Time) to create together a Thought-Seed Egregore based on the Herbert Hahn Verse
“When I think light, my soul shines, When my soul shines, the earth is a star, When the earth is a star, then I am, a true human being”
& then we will take turns sharing the indications for that day from Rudolf Steiner / The Buddha’s 8 –fold Path, known as the ‘Weekday Exercises’ (let me know if you would like to lead one of the days? (5 min) Holy Week chart
Palm SUNDAY Resolves or ‘RIGHT JUDGMENT.’ having been formed independently of sympathies and antipathies.
Holy MONDAY Talking – ‘RIGHT WORD.’
Holy TUESDAY External actions- ‘RIGHT DEED.’
Holy WEDNESDAY The ordering of life. – ‘RIGHT STANDPOINT.’
Maundy THURSDAY Human Endeavour. – ‘TO LET ALL THE EXERCISES BECOME A HABIT.’
Good FRIDAY The endeavor to learn as much as possible from life. – ‘RIGHT MEMORY.’ (Remembering what has been learned from experiences).
Holy SATURDAY To pay attention to one’s ideas. – ‘RIGHT OPINION.’
The octave of the New Sun EASTER SUNDAY To turn one’s gaze inwards – ‘RIGHT EXAMINATION.’
Whoever is holding the leading thoughts for that day will tie it into some 5-10 min. artistic exercise based on the indications
Group sharing (5 min)
We close with the ‘reversed’ Hahn verse. I am a True Human Being For the Earth is a Star The Earth is a Star When I Think Light When I think Light My Soul Shines
Easter Sunday – 4 April 2021, in person at the Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago & online 2 pm – 4 pm Central Time.
Group Eurythmy with Mary Ruud
Hazel Archer – The octave of the New Sun
Keynote with Ines Katharina (Bee Keeper, Founder of the Biodynamic Emerald Honeybee Sanctuary, Waldorf Teacher) Ines will connect the Easter Thought with the Elemental Beings & the flight of the Queen Bee.
Mary Ruud will give us a performance of ‘Rock Spring Wonder’
We close with singing ‘Now the green Blade Riseth’
Potluck Social Time in the Schreinerei – Please bring food & drink to share
$10 Suggested Donation (can’t make it? or joining us online? please consider supporting this event, Thank you)
*Dear friends, please join the call at 10:05 am to get settled in so we can begin the Thought-Seed promptly at 10:10 am Topic: The 8-Fold Path thru Holy Week 2021 Time: Starting on Palm Sunday Mar 28 – thru Easter Morning, 2021 10:10 AM Central Time (US and Canada) Every day, 8 occurrence(s) Mar 28, 2021 10:10 AM Mar 29, 2021 10:10 AM Mar 30, 2021 10:10 AM Mar 31, 2021 10:10 AM Apr 1, 2021 10:10 AM Apr 2, 2021 10:10 AM Apr 3, 2021 10:10 AM Apr 4, 2021 10:10 AM
Dial by your location Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/aX8X3nrr3 Meeting ID: 956 3344 4828 – Passcode: 425730
Events & Festivals Committee of the Rudolf Steiner Branch of The Anthroposophical Society, 4249 North Lincoln Ave. Chicago, IL 60618 (map) https://donate.rschicago.org/
Day 10 on the Lenten-tide journey – Some people may think that observing Lent is all about renunciation; but I see it more as a passage to receptivity. This is not a passive state of being. It is not a submissive waiting around; but an openness – a wiliness to cultivate a space for introspection.
Receptivity is a robust readiness, a vigorous intention to attend to the moral relationship we have with ourselves & the world; animated by the certainty that the way to the New Sun of Easter takes a humble reckoning reaching. And so let us reach out & receive what the tide has to teach us.
~hag
EarthSky & Sky&Telescope
26 February 2021 – “Speaking with the Stars: Full Quickening Moon tonight exact at 2:17am Saturday morning. It’s under the belly of Leo. This evening through the moonlight, look for Regulus, Alpha Leonis, on Bella Luna’s Right.
Black Board Drawing made by Rudolf Steiner October 1921
In honor of this years 3 day celebration of Rudolf Steiner’s 160th Birthday, I am thrilled to share this impressive article from Kathleen Wright, which she shared on the North Carolina Rudolf Steiner Branch list-serve yesterday. As part of their yearly AGM held on Steiner’s Birthday, Kathleen usually gives a talk: ‘In the life of Rudolf Steiner – 100 years ago“. Since they did not gather in person this year she wrote it up, & has graciously allowed me to share it with all of you.
THE YEAR 1921 IN THE LIFE OF RUDOLF STEINER
Today marks the 160th birthday of our great teacher, Rudolf Steiner. As our branch has traditionally done on this day, we will review a year in the life of Steiner, 100 years ago. According to Steiner, every 100 years marks a “culmination” of endeavors or events and new impulses or “recapitulations” should arise from them at this time; therefore, from what we observe of Steiner’s activities of 1921, we should be on the lookout for new forms and new interests in the topics of 1921 in the coming year.
Some of the interesting things about 1921: with the war finally over, Steiner was once more able to travel (his traveling was severely curtailed during the war years.) and travel he did – all over Europe, including England. (How we pray we will be able to do the same later on this year!) The work in the College he founded in the previous year continued full steam. The theme of this year’s study was” all of the Sciences”, beginning with a course in Astronomy in early January. (For a full list of all the lectures of the year visit: www.rsaarchive.org and type in 1921 in the link for “Year”.)
About 600 students participated in the College program at the Goetheanum. They were given morning lectures with Dr. Steiner and artistic classes in the afternoon with various artists. This was far from all that our Teacher did – there were lectures for the community in the evenings, innumerable correspondences, helping with all aspects of the work going on in the Goetheanum (especially the sculpture “The Representative of Humanity”), giving weekly talks to the workers – and I was interested to find out that these workers were mostly NOT anthroposophists. They were poor, desperate human beings looking for work after the war had left them destitute. While they may not have joined the Society, many of them spoke in Rudolf Steiner’s defense during the many attacks made on him that year. They dearly loved their employer for many reasons.
Guenther Wachsmuth writes that “the Spiritual Powers do honor to the greatest and strongest of human beings through the most severe tests. And the burdens which were laid upon Rudolf Steiner by the forces of destiny at just this time in his life are indications of the fact that he was chosen to accomplish an extraordinary task.” He says that Steiner had to confront “the severest battles, unspeakable suffering and opposition”. These battles took the form of articles, publications, letters and even in-person attacks at lectures, all full of malice and hatred, lies, slander, false accusations and misunderstandings of this great man and his message. He was accused of everything from being a “traitor”, “enemy of the State”, “Jesuit”, anti-Jesuit” and every possible insult one can imagine. While Wachsmuth tells of many of these attacks on Steiner from 1921, they pale in comparison to the attacks of 1922, about which we shall go into detail next year – such the attack on Steiner’s life by the Nazis and the burning of the Goetheanum after the incitement by a Jesuit priest.
The influence of the “Youth” in the movement began increasing and prompting new initiatives from their Teacher. A group of young seminarians came to Steiner rightly saying they felt organized religion was losing its affect and that it was in need of renewal or else it would die. The doctor responded by giving two courses for seminarians and anyone interested in the Movement for Religious Renewal (one in the summer and one at Michaelmas). About 100 people attended the Michaelmas course during which Steiner gave 29 talks. German students were allowed free admission because of how badly devastated the Germany economy was at the end of the war. Noticeably absent from the conference was Friedrich Rittlemeyer who had been a close follower of Steiner since 1911. He was ill at the time, but later read the reports about Steiner’s course on religious renewal and together, they and others, began plans for what became the Christian Community the following year. One interesting observation I have noted: in 1921, virtually all of the religious youth who approached Steiner were male. Today in the Christian Community Seminary course in Canada, there are 8 female students, no males. Back in 1921, Steiner had recommended that women be permitted to be priests in this new Movement. How far we have come! What would there be today if Steiner had not made this recommendation?
Another interesting event concerning youth is that a group of young members approached Steiner wanting to create something new for their own circle, a small esoteric group. (They did not like the traditional Study Groups of the ”old ladies” and there was no esoteric class at the time.) Steiner gave them indications to follow: a series of mantras which they must work with the same time each day and that they must remain close friends, aware of what was going on in one another’s lives. They must observe these rules very strictly. If they followed these guidelines, they would reincarnate together at the same time and place and find each other once more and would be able to resume their spiritual connection. At first Steiner agreed that he would meet with this group regularly to guide their spiritual work, but soon this became too much for him, especially after the burning of the Goetheanum and he advised them to all join the School of Spiritual Science in 1923. Though small, through the work of this group we have been given some important esoteric secrets on how we can work together to form Karmic circles. One sees a similar “culmination” renewal of this practice of late in the Society. One example is the group which was begun in Chicago where members work with the Six Exercises every day at Noon (EST) There have been other instances where it has been acknowledged of the great power produced by small groups of people who work together spiritually at the same time of day every day,
Also during 1921, Steiner continued giving courses for Waldorf Teachers and Anthroposophical Doctors.During this year, Ita Wegman established the Medical Clinic at Arlesheim where Steiner visited often and gave spiritual insights into the patients there. A medical research laboratory was begun that among other things, developed medicines. Eventually this became known as Weleda, but its start was in 1921. This is where Iscador was developed by Ita Wegman. Steiner gave these doctors many indications for developing new remedies. In April 1921 Steiner gave the first course on Curative Eurythmy.
Another laboratory, a scientific one was established also in Dornach and was directed by Eherenfried Pfeiffer. It was first in the basement of the “Glass House” and did many experiments with etheric forces.
A few new anthroposophic journals began in 1921: “Das Goetheanum” a weekly magazine, which Steiner put under the direction of Albert Steffen and “Die Drei”, a Munich monthly journal, for which Steiner wrote articles every month. Both magazines are still published today.
In addition to the huge volume of scientific lectures Steiner gave in 1921, he also spoke many times on the Threefold Social Order, as well as the differences in the West and the East as far as Religion and Historical conflicts go; he gave courses on Eurythmy, and of course there were many performances all around Europe, as well as Mystery Plays. He gave several lectures about Color – Plant Colors, as well as Therapeutic Application of Color. A great Artistic Conference was held in August of that year at the Goetheanum during which the Danish painter Baron Arild Rosenkrantz was the guest artist (as well as the one who suggested the idea to Steiner). It was conducted in English and there was a wonderful collaboration of American artists and European artists and persons interested in Art. This began a traditional at the Goetheanum of having artistic programs in August at the Geotheanum, eventually offered always in multiple languages.
At the request of many of his followers, Dr. Steiner gave several lectures on the Art of Lecturing during 1921. Among the most important points he gave were: one should truly love one’s subject; have a great love of humanity and incorporate the elements of beauty, correctness and ethics into one’s speaking. He recommended that one memorize the first two or three sentences of one’s opening and closing remarks, as it is the most difficult to begin and end one’s talk, so one should develop really good openers and closers; the rest of the content, one should know well enough that one does not need to write it all out, but rather to simply jot down some key words to refresh one’s memory.
There are so many details one could add, but these are hopefully the most important endeavors of Steiner 100 years ago. As in every year since his 42nd birthday, Steiner did more in one year of his life than most people do in 10 lifetimes. He was the most amazing and unique Initiate of all time. One could compare what he was to other Initiates as the Human Being is to the rest of the Angelic Kingdom: We humans are the first angelic hierarchy (though of course we are still “in training”), to have a material existence and Steiner is the first Initiate to bring the Spiritual into every arena of material life – arts, sciences, history, politics, medicine, speech, drama, religion, education to name a few…and he did it while maintaining his humanity and humility. The vastness and scope of his achievements are unprecedented. Some people have accused Steiner of being an “intellectual”, but one only has a right to say such a thing if they add that he is also equally strong in his heart and will capacities. We are truly blessed to be the pupils of this great Christ Initiate. All spiritual streams of the North, South, East and West are untied under him in this Age of the Consciousness Soul.
Take time to think on the great contributions of our Teacher and how we can honor him by following his example in little ways. One could start by reading one of the books based on lectures he gave in that year, for study is the first step on the path of Initiation. Next of course is our meditative life (which will develop in us Imagination, Inspiration and Intuition) and lastly to put into practice in our daily lives the principles of Anthroposophy. ~Kathleen Wright kathleenwright51@gmail.com
Greetings from YIP13, We are happy to present the 2021 Initiative Forum program ARE YOU LISTENING 3 -7 March Check out the ProgramThe schedule is packed full of workshops, lectures and open spaces – we’ve made sure that there are opportunities to participate no matter what time zone you’re in. We are excited to welcome over 15 different contributors to the forum including Orland Bishop, Hazel Archer-Ginsberg, Nora Rahimian, Diane Longboat, and Helmy Abouleish. Check out the full list on our website’s contributor page!
And of course, there will also be time in the mornings for movement workshops, and time in the evening for open mics, pajama parties, and radioshow hangouts.
We are so excited to connect with you under the theme “Are you listening” and to co-create this worldwide community with you!
Weaving a non-gendered Feminist Reality with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg*Friday 5 March 2021 – 6:30 am – 8 am Central Time as part of the The International Youth Initiative Program Initiative ForumWhat are the qualities of the Divine Feminine? How can we use them to empower an innovative way of thinking, feeling & willing, to create a new world, where the human being is free?Have paper & colored pencils at the ready for this hands-on workshop.Here is a link to the full programand the list of contributors*Hazel Archer-Ginsberg – Founder of Reverse Ritual: Understanding Anthroposophy through the Rhythms of the Year & the ‘I Think Speech’ Podcast. Trans-denominational Minister, Essayist, Lecturer, Poet, Anthroposopher – working as the Festivals Coordinator of the Chicago Rudolf Steiner Branch, & the Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society. Past Video Recordings
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Events & Festivals Committee of the Rudolf Steiner Branch of The Anthroposophical Society, 4249 North Lincoln Ave. Chicago, IL 60618 (map) https://donate.rschicago.org/
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WAYS TO ENGAGE:
The ARC (Anthroposophical Resorce Center in Atlanta) is inviting you to a Six Basic Exercise Practice Group
Time: weekdays 9 am PT / 11am CT / 12:00 PM ET
Each weekday you are invited to join in a 15 minute practice group focusing on Rudolf Steiner’s foundational exercises. We begin the time each day with a 5 minute leading thought focusing one aspect of the practice. We will follow that with a 5 minute period in which we turn off our cameras and practice on our own. After the five minute bell, we take 1-2 minutes to journal about our experience and the end the call with a 3 minute closing thought. Come when you can, and leave when you must.
Wednesdays 9:30-11:00am CT – True and False Paths in Spiritual Investigation, by Rudolf Steiner. We incorporate ‘The Calendar of the Soul’, eurythmy, focused discussion and seasonal artistic explorations in our study. All are Welcome. Contact Hazel Archer-Ginsberg. Hazel@ReverseRitual.comWe meet in person in the Branch Library or join via Zoom Meetinghttps://zoom.us/j/98689103462’Meeting ID: 986 8910 3462
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Fridays 12noon – 1:30pm CT. The Esoteric Path Through the Nineteen Class Lessons by Sergei O. Prokofieff. A serious study for Members of the School of Spiritual Science. Contact Hazel Archer-Ginsberg. Hazel@ReverseRitual.com
3 March – 7 March 2021 The International Youth Initiative Program (YIP) invites you to the ‘Initiative Forum: Are you Listening’ The week is packed full of workshops, lectures and open spaces – we’ve made sure that there are opportunities to participate no matter what time zone you’re in. We are excited to welcome over 15 different contributors to the forum including Orland Bishop, Nora Rahimian, Hazel Archer-Ginsberg, Diane Longboat, and Helmy Abouleish. Check out the full list on our website’s contributor page!
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March 3, 2021 – 7:15 pm – 8:30 pm CT. The Karma Project – The Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society in America invites you to join our ongoing monthly study conversation, Manifestations of Karma. If you have questions, please contact Alberto Loya aloyavaca@utexas.edu Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81681631480 Meeting ID: 816 8163 1480
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Tuesday 23 March 6:30-8:30pm Appreciating Our Differences Through Looking at Temperaments – The Center for Biography and Social Art warmly invites members of your community to attend this workshop in person or online. “How do we solve the riddle which each individual presents to us? We solve it by approaching each person in such a way that harmony results between them and us.” – Rudolf Steiner. Register in advance for this meeting:https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUrdeyvrzgqE9AnBYQ3hIc5KuxMvZa0rmW_ Warmly, Kathleen,center4biography@gmail.comCenter for Biography & Social Artbiographysocialart.org
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28 March 28 – 4 April, 10:10 am CT – Holy Week & Easter Festival 2021 The 8-Fold Path to the Easter Elementals. Starting on Palm Sunday then thru-out Holy Week, including Easter Morning, we will meet every day on Zoom at 10:10 am CT to create together a Thought-Seed based on a Herbert Hahn Verse “When I think light, my soul shines, When my soul shines, the earth is a star, When the earth is a star, then I am, a true human being. We will then work with indications for that day from Rudolf Steiner’s/The Buddha’s 8 –fold Path, known as the ‘Weekday Exercises’ (5 min) Holy Week chart. $10 Suggested Donation.Contact Hazel Archer-Ginsberg. Hazel@ReverseRitual.comJoin Zoom Meeting https://zoom.us/j/95633444828?pwd=Wk56K08vK2dNQUhhK0Q2S09zQWJrQT09Meeting ID: 956 3344 4828 – Passcode: bee
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Greetings from YIP13, We are happy to present the 2021 Initiative Forum program 
The schedule is packed full of workshops, lectures and open spaces – we’ve made sure that there are opportunities to participate no matter what time zone you’re in. We are excited to welcome over 15 different contributors to the forum including Orland Bishop, Hazel Archer-Ginsberg, Nora Rahimian, Diane Longboat, and Helmy Abouleish. Check out the full list on our website’s 
