7 April 2017 – Astro-Weather: The Brilliant benevolent King Jupiter reaches opposition & peak visibility tonight. It rises in the eastern sky at sunset & climbs highest in the south around midnight CDT. The giant planet is the night’s brightest celestial object with the exception of the waxing gibbous Moon & sweet Venus, Goddess of Love, which doesn’t rise until morning twilight begins. Jupiter resides among the background stars of Virgo, northwest of that constellation’s brightest star, Spica.
“Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think”. ~ Martin Luther King
451 – Attila the Hun sacks the town of Metz & attacks other cities in Gaul.
611 – Maya king Uneh Chan of Calakmul sacks rival city-state Palenque in southern Mexico.
1141 – Empress Matilda became the first female ruler of England, adopting the title ‘Lady of the English’.
1614 – Deathday of El Greco, Greek-Spanish painter & sculptor
1724 – Premiere performance of Johann Sebastian Bach’s St John Passion at St. Nicholas Church, Leipzig
1805 – German composer Ludwig van Beethoven premiered his Third Symphony, at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna.
1915 – Birthday of Billie Holiday, American singer-songwriter & actress
1964 – A bulldozer kills Rev. Bruce W. Klunder, a civil rights activist, during a school segregation protest in Cleveland, Ohio, sparking a riot
***
Chris Manvell
POD (Poem Of the Day)
~In the small dark mouth of a bird All days are one Day, lived on an island of flame…
~hag
***
EASTER-TIDE EVENTS for 2017:
Holy Week Gatherings:
This year we dedicate our study to those who have crossed the threshold. We will be reading to the dead from “The Mystery of the resurrection in the light of Anthroposophy” by Sergei O. Prokofieff. We will incorporate ‘The Calendar of the Soul’ verse for Easter, Group eurythmy, & focused discussion.
Study: 9 April 2017, Palm Sunday 2 pm – 3 pm
*SPECIAL EVENT: 3 pm – 6 pm – Work Party at the branch with Elisabeth Swisher & the youth from CWS – All are Welcome
Study: 13 April 2017, Maundy Thursday 7 pm – 8 pm
Study: 14 April 2017, Good Friday 7 pm – 8 pm
***
15 April 2017, Holy Saturday – Our Easter-Tide Festival: ‘The Mystery of Golgotha – Then & Now’ 2 pm – 4 pm
What was the Mystery of Golgotha?
What is the Mystery now?
What will it be for the future?
~Art Projections & Discourse with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg
Group work: Based on Baruch Urieli’s
‘Learning to Experience the Etheric World,
Empathy, the After-Image and a New Social Ethic’
$10 Donation & Snacks to Share Encouraged
***
16 April 2017, Easter Sunday – 4 pm – 6 pm
The Midwest Eurythmy Group will perform
The Easter Verse from the Calendar of the Soul by Rudolf Steiner & Bach Fugue Bb minor ‘5 Voices’ & Prelude #22
Then we will gather for our study & the reading to the dead from Chapter 5 of ‘An Outline of Esoteric Science’, entitled ‘Initiation’ – We will incorporate an Artistic Activity related to the study, Group Eurythmy, & Focused Discussion.
$10 Donation goes to support the Midwest Eurythmy Group & Snacks to Share Encouraged (Hazel will bring her famous slow cooked leg of lamb :
at the Rudolf Steiner Branch of the Anthroposophical Society 4249 N. Lincoln Ave, Chicago IL. 60618. MAP
6 April 2017 – Astro-Weather: The waxing gibbous Moon pairs with Regulus, the leading light of Leo. How soon in twilight can you first spot Regulus? Watch them cross the sky together through the night. They set just before the beginning of Friday’s dawn
***
“What is to be the starting force & impulse for events in social & ethical life must come out of the spiritual world.” ~Rudolf Steiner, New Spiritual Impulses in History” Dornach 16 December, 1917
582- Death & Feast Day of Eutychius of Constantinople, Toward the end of his life, Eutychius maintained an opinion that after the resurrection the body will be “more subtle than air” & no longer a tangible thing. This was considered heretical, because it was taken as a denial of the doctrine of physical, corporeal resurrection
1483 – Good Friday – Birthday of Raphael, an Italian painter & architect of the High Renaissance. Raphael was enormously productive, running an unusually large workshop &, despite his death at 37, leaving a large body of work. Many of his works are found in the Vatican Palace. From 1517 until his death, Raphael lived in the Palazzo Caprini in the Borgo, in rather grand style in a palace designed by Bramante. He never married, & was thought to be bi-sexual. He is said to have had many affairs, but a permanent fixture in his life in Rome was “La Fornarina”, Margherita Luti, the daughter of a baker (fornaro) named Francesco Luti from Siena
Raphael’s premature death on Good Friday (April 6, 1520), which was also his 37th birthday, was caused by a night of excessive sex with Luti, after which he fell into a fever &, not telling his doctors that this was its cause, was given the wrong cure, which killed him. At his request, Raphael was buried in the Pantheon.
His funeral was extremely grand, attended by large crowds. The inscription in his marble sarcophagus, an elegiac distich written by Pietro Bembo, reads: “Ille hic est Raffael, timuit quo sospite vinci, rerum magna parens et moriente mori”, meaning: “Here lies that famous Raphael by whom Nature feared to be conquered while he lived, and when he was dying, feared herself to die.”
1472 – Birthday of Lucas Cranach the Elder, a German Renaissance painter & printmaker
1520 – Good Friday – Deathday of Raphael
1869 – Celluloid is patented
1896 – In Athens, the opening of the first modern Olympic Games is celebrated, 1,500 years after the original games are banned by Roman emperor Theodosius I
1930 – Gandhi raises a lump of mud and salt and declares, “With this, I am shaking the foundations of the British Empire,” beginning the Salt Satyagraha
1965 – Launch of Early Bird, the first commercial communications satellite to be placed in geosynchronous orbit
1971 – Deathday of Igor Stravinsky, Russian-American pianist, composer, & conductor
1992 – Deathday of Isaac Asimov, American science fiction writer
2008 – The 2008 Egyptian general strike starts led by Egyptian workers later to be adopted by April 6 Youth Movement & Egyptian activists
2015 – Deathday of Ray Charles
***
Vladamir Kush
POD (Poem Of theDay)
~O Tree of Life Now is not your Winter The red-rose-vine will entwine The ever greening bough In a slow motion rapture
~hag
***
Jan de Kok
EASTER-TIDE EVENTS for 2017:
Holy Week Gatherings:
This year we dedicate our study to those who have crossed the threshold. We will be reading to the dead from Chapter 5 of ‘An Outline of Esoteric Science’, entitled ‘Initiation’. We will incorporate ‘The Calendar of the Soul’ verse for Easter, Group eurythmy, & focused discussion.
Study: 9 April 2017, Palm Sunday 2 pm – 3 pm
*SPECIAL EVENT: 3 pm – 6 pm – Work Party at the branch with Elisabeth Swisher & the youth from CWS – All are Welcome
Study: 13 April 2017, Maundy Thursday 7 pm – 8 pm
Study: 14 April 2017, Good Friday 7 pm – 8 pm
***
15 April 2017, Holy Saturday – Our Easter-Tide Festival: ‘The Mystery of Golgotha – Then & Now’ 2 pm – 4 pm
What was the Mystery of Golgotha?
What is the Mystery now?
What will it be for the future?
~Art Projections & Discourse with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg
Group work: Based on Baruch Urieli’s
‘Learning to Experience the Etheric World,
Empathy, the After-Image and a New Social Ethic’
$10 Donation & Snacks to Share Encouraged
***
16 April 2017, Easter Sunday – 4 pm – 6 pm
The Midwest Eurythmy Group will perform
The Easter Verse from the Calendar of the Soul by Rudolf Steiner & Bach Fugue Bb minor ‘5 Voices’ & Prelude #22
Then we will gather for our study & the reading to the dead from Chapter 5 of ‘An Outline of Esoteric Science’, entitled ‘Initiation’ – We will incorporate an Artistic Activity related to the study, Group Eurythmy, & Focused Discussion.
$10 Donation goes to support the Midwest Eurythmy Group & Snacks to Share Encouraged (Hazel will bring her famous slow cooked leg of lamb :
at theRudolf Steiner Branch of the Anthroposophical Society 4249 N. Lincoln Ave, Chicago IL. 60618. MAP
4 April 2017 – Astro-Weather : Near the end of twilight at this time of year, Arcturus, the bright “Spring Star” climbing in the east (well to the left of brighter Jupiter), shines at the same height as Sirius, the brighter “Winter Star” descending in the southwest’
Saturn rises shortly after 1am CDT & climbs high in the south by the time morning twilight begins. The ringed planet lies in the northwestern corner of Sagittarius the Archer, where it appears nearly stationary relative to the background stars, getting ready for its retrograde journey starting tomorrow!
***
Remedios Varo
“Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.”~ H.G. Wells
1st day of Sham el-Nisim -an Egyptian national holiday marking the beginning of spring. The name of the holiday is derived from the Egyptian name of the Harvest Season, known as Shemu, which means a day of creation. According to annals written by Plutarch during the 1st century AD, the Ancient Egyptians used to offer salted fish, lettuce, & onions to their deities on this day.
After the Christianization of Egypt, the festival became associated with the other Christian spring festival, Easter. Over time, Shemu morphed into its current form & its current date, As Egypt became Arabized, the term Shemu found a rough phono-semantic match in Sham el-Nessim, or “Smelling/Taking In of the Zephyrs,” which represents the way in which Egyptians celebrate the holiday.
Early in the morning of this day, many folks, especially women, break an onion, & smell it; & in the course of the afternoon many of the citizens of Cairo ride or walk a little way into the country, or go in boats, generally northward, to take the air, or, as they term it, smell the air, which on that day they believe to have a wonderfully beneficial effect. People spend all day out picnicking in any space of green, public gardens, on the Nile, or at the zoo. Traditional food eaten on this day consists mainly of fesikh (a fermented, salted and dried grey mullet), lettuce, scallions or green onions, tirmis, and colored boiled eggs
April 5-6, 1909 – Rudolf Steiner laid the foundation stone for the Rosicrucian Temple of the “Francis of Assisi” Lodge in Malsch
1969 –Massive antiwar demonstrations occur in many U.S. cities
“If America’s soul becomes totally poisoned, part of the autopsy must read “Vietnam.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr., 1967
***
Maria Gracia-Plotter
POD (Poem Of the Day)
~Drink the cup of heaven – She told me Let grace roll down your head like the blessings of baptism Drink in the Earth to let the young sprouts unfurl within According to their purpose… Swallow the light & praise the spectrum That spills out the threads of eternity… …Then you may Be the fire feed with breath Begotten...
~hag
***
Sarah Bettle
“The Harmony of the Universe at the Moment of the Mystery of Golgotha “ by Willi Sucher
“The moment of the (original) Mystery of Golgotha, that is, the time from the 3rd to the 5th of April 33 AD, displays a unique situation in the cosmos. During those days there existed a harmony throughout the heavens, right down to the Earth, which did not exist before and will not return (if at all) for 26,000 years.”
The essence of this essay by Astrosopher Willi Sucher is that the ‘3 Zodiacs’ were aligned:
The Constellations (the fixed Stars or astral body of the cosmos – World Soul)
The Signs (associated with the seasons, with the yearly rhythms of life in nature – an image of the etheric, or life forces, in the universe)
The Houses (that which radiates as space segments from the geographical point where one stands – an image of the physical body)
“At the time of the Mystery of Golgotha, particularly on Easter Sunday just before sunrise, these space sectors were oriented into space in perfect harmony. This wonderful harmony of the three Zodiacs, between heaven and Earth, is a vivid symbol, or image of the resurrection body that was then re-established.
The disharmony before was connected with the ‘Fall’ of humanity, and with the corruption of the spirit body. The ‘Fall’ in Paradise did not mean that only Adam and Eve went through those experiences, the entire universe was affected and changed in that moment. The position of the Earth was changed.
We are faced in our work with the difference between the geocentric and heliocentric world conceptions. Rudolf Steiner, on the basis of his spiritual investigations, pointed out that in the medieval Rosicrucian schools the pupil was first introduced to the geocentric view. Then, when the pupil had learned this, he was told that this is how it should be, but that it is not so on account of the ‘Fall.’ The Earth had thereby lost its central position. That which happened in Paradise affected the entire Earth and therefore the possibility of disharmony entered cosmic history.
However, on that Sunday morning, 5 April 33 AD, just before sunrise, the original harmony was re-established. The cosmos was jubilant about what happened when the Christ rose from the grave of the Earth. At the same time it was the hope of all future Earth existence and of all future humanity. “~Summary & excerpt from Astrosopher Willi Sucher’s Cosmic Christianity
Jacopo di Cione
And so it is my friends, that the Easter garden begins to bloom, that our souls can behold, like the Magdalana before us, The Risen One as the gardener of the New Jerusalem.
The Tomb becomes the altar, a sacred place to commune with the gods – with the souls of the departed as our intermediaries. The tomb becomes the Round table, and the Parsifal question leads us to find Christ in the etheric.
This will be the subject of our Easter-Tide Discourse
The Bridging Project
Between Life and Death from Soul to Soul April 5, 2017 – 7:15 pm CST
“This dulling of human feelings of wonder is connected with what was not taken up in the age approaching the twentieth century. If we wish to speak of the causes of our present catastrophic events, we will find that these causes are not human actions, but instead are sins of omission. This is the essential point.” ~Rudolf Steiner, Historical Necessity and Freewill, Lecture 6, “New Spiritual Impulses in History – Their Rejection by the Materialistic World Conception and the Result of the Catastrophic Events of World War I” … Our focus for the April 5 meeting
The Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society in America invites you to join our ongoing study conversation. The study has been divided amongst six 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 will be a “go-to-meeting” 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: Option 1. Click link below if you wish to connect through your computer (a headset is recommended) https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/328407941 Option 2. Call in using your telephone.
United States: +1 (312) 757-3117
Canada: +1 (647) 497-9373
Access Code: 328-407-941 Option 3. You can use a combination of Options 1 and 2 (computer and phone). If you use the phone, please turn off the audio on your computer.
Please join us!
Agenda for our Study Call
7:15 Verse
7:18 Welcome and Introductions
7:25 Study led by six volunteers
Alberto – beginning to page 79
Marianne D – page 79 to 81
Hazel – page 81 to page 83
Raven – page 83 to page 85
Marianne F-D – page 85 to 87
Travis – page 87 to end
8:05 Conversation
8:20 Identify volunteers for the next study call, June 14
8:25 Share initial thoughts regarding Central Region gatherings in August (time of the solar eclipse) and November (All Souls)
8:28 Close with verse
***
EASTER-TIDE EVENTS for 2017: (PLEASE NOTE: THE ENTIRE SCHEDULE HAS CHANGED FROM THE PRINTED CALENDAR)
Holy Week Gatherings:
This year we dedicate our study to those who have crossed the threshold. We will be reading to the dead from Chapter 5 of ‘An Outline of Esoteric Science’, entitled ‘Initiation’. We will incorporate ‘The Calendar of the Soul’ verse for Easter, Group eurythmy, & focused discussion.
Study: 9 April 2017, Palm Sunday 2 pm – 3 pm
*SPECIAL EVENT: 3 pm – 6 pm – Work Party at the branch with Elisabeth Swisher & the youth from CWS – All are Welcome
Study: 13 April 2017, Maundy Thursday 7 pm – 8 pm
Study: 14 April 2017, Good Friday 7 pm – 8 pm
***
15 April 2017, Holy Saturday – Our Easter-Tide Festival: ‘The Mystery of Golgotha – Then & Now’ 2 pm – 4 pm
What was the Mystery of Golgotha?
What is the Mystery now?
What will it be for the future?
~Art Projections & Discourse with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg
Group work: Based on Baruch Urieli’s
‘Learning to Experience the Etheric World,
Empathy, the After-Image and a New Social Ethic’
$10 Donation & Snacks to Share Encouraged
***
16 April 2017, Easter Sunday – 4 pm – 6 pm
The Midwest Eurythmy Group will perform
The Easter Verse from the Calendar of the Soul by Rudolf Steiner & Bach Fugue Bb minor ‘5 Voices’ & Prelude #22
Then we will gather for our study & the reading to the dead from Chapter 5 of ‘An Outline of Esoteric Science’, entitled ‘Initiation’ – We will incorporate an Artistic Activity related to the study, Group Eurythmy, & Focused Discussion.
$10 Donation goes to support the Midwest Eurythmy Group & Snacks to Share Encouraged (Hazel will bring her famous slow cooked leg of lamb :
at theRudolf Steiner Branch of the Anthroposophical Society 4249 N. Lincoln Ave, Chicago IL. 60618. MAP
4 April 2017 – Astro-Weather: The Big Dipper’s familiar shape rides high in the northeast on April evenings. The spring sky’s finest binocular double star Mizar & Alcor marks the bend of the Dipper’s handle.
Melissa Zendejas
Also now, Bella Luna forms a huge, nearly vertical line with Procyon & Sirius below it in early & mid-evening
***
Marge Bing
“The historical sense involves a perception, not only of the pastness of the past, but of its presence.” ~T.S. Eliot, “Tradition & the Individual Talent” (1919)
397 – Deathday of Aurelius Ambrosius, There is a legend that as an infant, a swarm of bees settled on his face while he lay in his cradle, leaving behind a drop of honey. His father considered this a sign of his future eloquence & honeyed tongue. For this reason, bees & beehives often appear in the saint’s symbology.
St. Ambrose ranks with Augustine, Jerome, & Gregory the Great, as one of the Latin Doctors of the Church. Theologians compare him with Hilary. Ambrose displayed a kind of liturgical flexibility that kept in mind that liturgy was a tool to serve people in worshiping God, & ought not to become a rigid entity that is invariable from place to place. His advice to Augustine of Hippo on this point was to follow local liturgical custom. “When I am at Rome, I fast on a Saturday; when I am at Milan, I do not. Follow the custom of the church where you are.” Thus Ambrose refused to be drawn into a false conflict over which particular local church had the “right” liturgical form where there was no substantial problem. His advice has remained in the English language as the saying, “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.”
One interpretation of Ambrose’s writings is that he was a Christian universalist. It has been noted that Ambrose’s theology was significantly influenced by that of Origen & Didymus the Blind.
Ambrose considered the poor not a distinct group of outsiders, but a part of the united, solidary people. Giving to the poor was not to be considered an act of generosity towards the fringes of society but as a repayment of resources that God had originally bestowed on everyone equally & that the rich had usurped
560 – Death day of Zosimas of Palestine, reputed to have lived to be almost one hundred years of age is best known for his encounter with St. Mary of Egypt. It was the custom of that monastery for all of the brethren to go out into the desert for the 40 days of Great Lent, spending the time in fasting & prayer. While wandering in the desert he met Saint Mary, who told him her life story & asked him to meet her the next year on Holy Thursday on the banks of the Jordan, in order to bring her Holy Communion. He did so, & the third year came to her again in the desert, but he found that she had died & he buried her.
636 – Deathday of Saint Isidore of Seville, was one of the last of the ancient Christian philosophers; he was the last of the great Latin Church Fathers & was contemporary with Maximus the Confessor. Some consider him to be the most learned man of his age, & he exercised a far-reaching & immeasurable influence on the educational life of the Middle Ages. His contemporary & friend, Braulio of Zaragoza, regarded him as a man raised up by God to save the Iberian peoples from the tidal wave of barbarism that threatened to inundate the ancient civilization of Hispania
1863 – Deathday of Ludwig Emil Grimm, a German painter, art professor, etcher & copper engraver. His brothers were the well-known folklorists Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm
1887 – Argonia, Kansas elects Susanna M. Salter as the 1st female mayor in the United States
1905 – In India, an earthquake hits the Kangra Valley, killing 20,000, &destroying most buildings in Kangra, McLeod Ganj and Dharamsala
1913 – Birthday of Blues man Muddy Waters (for Fuji J
1944 – World War II: First bombardment of oil refineries in Bucharest by Anglo-American forces kills 3000 civilians
1967 – Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence” speech in New York City’s Riverside Church
1968 – Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated by James Earl Ray at a motel in Memphis, Tennessee
***
Melvin Luckkin
POD (Poem Of the Day)
~I will To call myself my own Irradiating the night of Time & space with an inborn gleam While nature dreams, my soul is called, to stay awake Suffusing Sun fire into the hive… Do you recognize me…?
~hag
***
Sandy Grupa
A thought for today:
Shakespeare described bees as “singing masons building roofs of gold”
***
Kari Marie Olson
The Bridging Project
Between Life and Death from Soul to Soul April 5, 2017 – 7:15 pm CST
“This dulling of human feelings of wonder is connected with what was not taken up in the age approaching the twentieth century. If we wish to speak of the causes of our present catastrophic events, we will find that these causes are not human actions, but instead are sins of omission. This is the essential point.” ~Rudolf Steiner, Historical Necessity and Freewill, Lecture 6, “New Spiritual Impulses in History – Their Rejection by the Materialistic World Conception and the Result of the Catastrophic Events of World War I” … Our focus for the April 5 meeting
The Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society in America invites you to join our ongoing study conversation. The study has been divided amongst six 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 will be a “go-to-meeting” 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: Option 1. Click link below if you wish to connect through your computer (a headset is recommended) https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/328407941 Option 2. Call in using your telephone.
United States: +1 (312) 757-3117
Canada: +1 (647) 497-9373
Access Code: 328-407-941 Option 3. You can use a combination of Options 1 and 2 (computer and phone). If you use the phone, please turn off the audio on your computer.
Please join us!
Agenda for our Study Call
7:15 Verse
7:18 Welcome and Introductions
7:25 Study led by six volunteers
Alberto – beginning to page 79
Marianne D – page 79 to 81
Hazel – page 81 to page 83
Raven – page 83 to page 85
Marianne F-D – page 85 to 87
Travis – page 87 to end
8:05 Conversation
8:20 Identify volunteers for the next study call, June 14
8:25 Share initial thoughts regarding Central Region gatherings in August (time of the solar eclipse) and November (All Souls)
8:28 Close with verse
3 April 2017 – Astro-Weather: First-quarter Moon (exact at 1:29 p.m. CDT). You can find the half-lit orb high in the southwest as darkness falls; it doesn’t set until about 2:30 AM tomorrow morning. Bella Luna is in south-central Gemini, shining under Pollux of the Castor-&-Pollux pair, & upper left there’s brighter Procyon. Look way below Procyon for Sirius, brighter still.
3 April 33 is, according to the spiritual scientific research, the DeathDay of Christ Jesus
José de Ribera
421 – Deathday of Mary of Egypt, also known as Maria Aegyptica. In Goethe’s Faust Mary of Egypt is one of the 3 penitent saints who pray to the Virgin Mary for forgiveness for Faust. Her words are set by Mahler in his 8th Symphony, as the final saint’s appeal to the Mater Gloriosa.
Her Story: At the age of twelve she ran away from her parents to the city of Alexandria. Here she lived an extremely dissolute life. In her Vita it states that she often refused the money offered for her sexual favors, as she was driven “by an insatiable & an irrepressible passion,” and that she mainly lived by begging, supplemented by spinning flax.
After seventeen years of this lifestyle, she traveled to Jerusalem for the Great Feasts of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. She undertook the journey as a sort of “anti-pilgrimage,” stating that she hoped to find in the pilgrim crowds at Jerusalem even more partners in her lust. She paid for her passage by offering sexual favors to other pilgrims, & she continued her habitual lifestyle for a short time in Jerusalem. Her Vita relates that when she tried to enter the Church of the Holy Sepulchre for the celebration, she was barred from doing so by an unseen force. Realizing that this was because of her impurity, she was struck with remorse, & upon seeing an icon of the Theotokos (the Virgin Mary) outside the church, she prayed for forgiveness & promised to give up the world (i.e., become an ascetic). Then she attempted again to enter the church, & this time was permitted in. After venerating the relic of the true cross, she returned to the icon to give thanks, & heard a voice telling her, “If you cross the Jordan, you will find glorious rest.” She immediately went to the monastery of Saint John the Baptist on the bank of the River Jordan, where she received absolution & afterwards Holy Communion. The next morning, she crossed the Jordan & retired to the desert to live the rest of her life as a hermit in penitence. She took with her only three loaves of bread, & once they were gone, lived only on what she could find in the wilderness.
Approximately one year before her death, she recounted her life to Saint Zosimas of Palestine, who encountered her in the desert. When he unexpectedly met her in the desert, she was completely naked & almost unrecognizable as human. She asked Zosimas to toss her his mantle to cover herself with, & then she narrated her life’s story to him, manifesting marvellous clairvoyance. She asked him to meet her at the banks of the Jordan, on Holy Thursday of the following year, & bring her Holy Communion. When he fulfilled her wish, she crossed the river to get to him by walking on the surface of the water, & received Holy Communion, telling him to meet her again in the desert the following Lent. The next year, Zosimas travelled to the same spot where he first met her, some twenty days’ journey from his monastery, & found her lying there dead. According to an inscription written in the sand next to her head, she had died on the very night he had given her Communion & had been somehow miraculously transported to the place he found her, & her body was preserved incorrupt. He buried her body with the assistance of a passing lion. On returning to the monastery he related her life story to the brethren, & it was preserved among them as oral tradition until it was written down by St. Sophronius. In Italy, this Mary became associated with the patronage of fallen women much like Mary Magdalene, to whom similar traits were associated.
1682 – Deathday of Rosamunde, Princess of Cyprus – There is a play by Helmina von Chézy, with music which Franz Schubert composed for it.
The story concerns the attempt of Rosamunde, who was brought up incognito as a shepherdess by the mariner’s widow Axa, to reclaim her throne. The long-established governor Fulgentius , who already has Rosamunde’s parents on his conscience, attempts to thwart Rosamunde, initially by intrigue, then by a marriage proposal & finally by an attempt at poisoning. Rosamunde, whose claim is backed by a deed in her father’s hand, enjoys the support of Cypriots & the Cretan Prince Alfonso, her intended husband. Finally, all the attempts of Fulgentius fail; he dies by his own poison, & Rosamunde ascends the throne.
1895 – The trial in the libel case brought by Oscar Wilde begins, eventually resulting in his imprisonment on charges of homosexuality
1922 – Joseph Stalin becomes the first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
1968 – Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech
***
POD (Poem Of the Day)
~I have wandered Into empty temples at night & looked at the rough faces of sleeping gods & I have paused with wonder at the entrance of shallow caves Where the god-seekers smile & wait Clothed only in their own light… I know the cool mind of blue sky & the hot mysteries of earth While I stand pecking seeds Or resting on one leg Watching reflections on the water… That’s where I found you…
~hag
***
“…Let us bear in mind that the human brain is an actual human Imagination. We are indeed born with a brain, if not a fully developed one, at least with a brain containing the tendencies of growth. It tries to develop to the point of being a realized Imaginative world, to be the impression of an Imaginative world. This is, as it were, the ready-made aspect of our brain, namely, that it is the replica of an Imaginative world. Into this impression of the Imaginative world we then build the conceptual experiences attained during the time between birth and death. During this period we have conceptual experiences; we conceive, we transform the sense perceptions into thoughts; we judge, we conclude, and so on. We fit this into our brain. What kind of activity is this?…” ~Rudolf Steiner, Materialism and the Task of Anthroposophy, LECTURE II, Dornach, April 3, 1921
***
EASTER-TIDE EVENTS in Chicago for 2017:
Holy Week Gatherings:
This year we dedicate our study to those who have crossed the threshold. We will be reading to the dead from Chapter 5 of ‘An Outline of Esoteric Science’, entitled ‘Initiation’. We will incorporate ‘The Calendar of the Soul’ verse for Easter, Group eurythmy, & focused discussion.
Study: 9 April 2017, Palm Sunday 2 pm – 3 pm
*SPECIAL EVENT: 3 pm – 6 pm – Work Party at the branch with Elisabeth Swisher & the youth from CWS – All are Welcome
Study: 13 April 2017, Maundy Thursday 7 pm – 8 pm
Study: 14 April 2017, Good Friday 7 pm – 8 pm
***
15 April 2017, Holy Saturday – Our Easter-Tide Festival: ‘The Mystery of Golgotha – Then & Now’ 2 pm – 4 pm
What was the Mystery of Golgotha?
What is the Mystery now?
What will it be for the future?
~Art Projections & Discourse with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg
Group work: Based on Baruch Urieli’s
‘Learning to Experience the Etheric World,
Empathy, the After-Image and a New Social Ethic’
$10 Donation & Snacks to Share Encouraged
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16 April 2017, Easter Sunday – 4 pm – 6 pm
The Midwest Eurythmy Group will perform The Easter Verse from the Calendar of the Soul by Rudolf Steiner & Bach Fugue Bb minor ‘5 Voices’ & Prelude #22
Then we will gather for our study & the reading to the dead from Chapter 5 of ‘An Outline of Esoteric Science’, entitled ‘Initiation’ – We will incorporate an Artistic Activity related to the study, Group Eurythmy, & Focused Discussion.
$10 Donation goes to support the Midwest Eurythmy Group & Snacks to Share Encouraged (Hazel will bring her famous slow cooked leg of lamb 🙂
Henry John Stock
Chris Manvell
