Category Archives: Speaking with the Stars

Autumn: A Guided Meditation

October 13, 2016Autumn, Meditation, Poetry, Quote, Remembering, Soul to Soul, Speaking with the Stars~hag

13 October 2016 – Astro-Weather: The gibbous Moon lights the southeastern sky after dark. Look upper left of it, by a couple of fists at arm’s length, for the Great Square of Pegasus tilted up onto one corner. Far lower right of the Moon is Fomalhaut

Isao Tomoda

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

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Feast Day of Edward the Confessor, the last king of the House of Wessex. Some portray this king’s reign as leading to the disintegration of royal power in England.

Feast Day of Gerald of Aurillac, who suffered illness as a child, & in later life became blind. He seriously considered joining a religious order, but was persuaded against it. Nevertheless, secretly tonsured under his habitual cap, he consecrated his life in service to God, gave away his possessions, took a personal vow of chastity & prayed the breviary each day. He is the patron saint of the disabled, handicapped, & physically challenged.

54 – Emperor Claudius is poisoned to death under mysterious circumstances. His 17-year-old stepson Nero succeeds him

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

Mariotto Albertinelli

1474 – Birthday of Mariotto Albertinelli, an Italian High Renaissance painter of the Florentine school. He was a close friend & collaborator of Fra Bartolomeo & their joint works appear as if they have been painted by one hand

1582 – Because of the adoption of the Gregorian calendar, this day does not exist in this year in Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain

1773 – The Whirlpool Galaxy is discovered by Charles Messier

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

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

1962 – The Pacific Northwest experiences a cyclone the equal of a Cat 3 hurricane. Winds measured above 150 mph at several locations; 446 people died

1972 – An Aeroflot Ilyushin Il-62 crashes outside Moscow killing 174

1972 – Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 crashes in the Andes mountains, near the border between Argentina & Chile. By December 23, 1972, only 16 out of 45 people lived long enough to be rescued

1976 – A Bolivian Boeing 707 cargo jet crashes in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, killing 100 (97, mostly children, killed on the ground)

1983 – Ameritech Mobile Communications (now AT&T) launched the first US cellular network in Chicago

1988 – Naguib Mahfouz, an Egyptian writer regarded as one of the first contemporary writers of Arabic literature, to explore themes of existentialism. wins Nobel Prize in Literature; the only Arab to win the prize. As a consequence of his outspoken support for Sadat’s Camp David peace treaty with Israel his books were banned in many Arab countries. Mahfouz was on an Islamic fundamentalist “death list”. In 1994 an Islamic extremist succeeded in attacking the 82-year-old novelist by stabbing him in the neck outside his Cairo home. He survived, permanently affected by damage to nerves of his right upper limb. After the incident Mahfouz was unable to write for more than a few minutes a day & consequently produced fewer & fewer works

1992 –Antonov Airlines crashes near Kiev, Ukraine killing 80

2010 – The Copiapó mining accident in Copiapó, Chile comes to an end as all 33 miners arrive at the surface after surviving a record 69 days underground awaiting rescue

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MY POD (Poem Of the Day)

~I travel the back of a snake

An unbroken seal on the book of myself

Giving my mind the pleasure of creation

My heart thinks

& love opens the way…

~hag

***

Autumn: A Guided Meditation

You float…you feel a gentle breeze began to dance you through the air like a leaf in the fall. This is a very comforting feeling, like being carried in your mother’s arms. There is no fear. You spin through the sky, flying over fields & forests…

As the wind gently releases, you slowly begin to sink down toward a wilderness of trees. Gently, Gently…You reach the ground landing on a well-trodden path.

You begin, now, to walk the path heading in a familiar direction. As you walk, you notice the 1st hint of color changing the trees…& the silence, broken only by the gentle breeze…the song of birds & other animals. Ahead of you, the path opens up to a larger area. You arrive at this place, & know that it is a Sacred Place.

It may be a grove, or a shady spot under a large tree. It may be a clearing, or a meadow. It may be a stone-circle, or a temple. However it appears to you, you know this is a Sacred Place, it feels safe & powerful.

Enter this Sacred Place…You may wish to remove your shoes because the ground is holy…You may wish to make an offering, or sing a blessing…As you enter this place, you see the bright figure of a woman ahead of you. She looks very familiar. She calls your name, & asks you to come forward. You are unable to make out her face, as she is engulfed in a brilliant glow. She leans forward; you close your eyes, & embrace. As you stand in the arms of this bright woman, she whispers a truth to you. It is a well-reasoned, logical truth. It may be something you already know, but are unaware of. It may be something which makes wonderful sense to you, & makes your mind open with wonder. It may be a mystical teaching which will require further thought. Whatever it may be, you know you are blessed by this amazing teaching…

Then the bright woman braids a chain of flowers into your hair…you touch your fingers to your head knowing your mind has been forever changed, opened, to all the possibilities of positive thinking that will transform your thoughts into things…

You spin with joy, noticing all at once, that the bright woman has vanished & now, standing before you, is a dark figure, looking strangely familiar. Again, you are unable to make out her face. But you notice she is carrying a bundle over her shoulder. She lays her burden down on the ground at your feet. The dark woman speaks to you, with a voice that resonates in a similar way as the first figure; yet deeper, more mellow & mysterious…She calls you by name, & asks you to come forward. You do so. You close your eyes, & embrace this dark woman…Your embrace is a full of compassion & warmth.

She gently whispers a truth in your ear. It is a truth which you feel is right. The truth touches your heart & frees your soul. You feel like a bird, soaring through the skies, singing a song of joy. When you open your eyes you become aware that the dark woman has vanished, & the bundle she was carrying & left at your feet has transformed into a large piece of rich honey-colored amber. You pick it up & hold it in your hand…the sun calls you to lift the amber up…bring it up into the light…let the sunshine merge with this solid symbol of your vitality…breathe in the pranic life-force emanating from your true purpose made manifest…

Put this treasure in your pocket, as you leave the Sacred Place…forever knowing that the sacred place goes where your intention flows…Knowing that union is possible between the many parts of our beings…walk in confidence… balanced in the light & dark of your most authentic self…walk the path toward the wilderness.

You pass the trees, & notice that the colors of their leaves are becoming more pronounced. You see the squirrels busy collecting nuts, & the birds beginning their southward journey. You pass the point where you began walking on this path.

You begin ascending a large hill. You walk upward…upward…up the hill, until you reach the top. There you find that you can see the surrounding countryside all around you. You have an amazing view of your Sacred Place. As you stand there in the sun, you feel your mind & body as it begins to change. Knowing in every cell of your being that we all sink into the earth like a seed in its season, released into the fertile earth. Feel the last wave of the Summer heat vanish, you are in a warm blanket of earth, waiting, listening, waiting…feeling the loving arms of Mother Earth transforming you…

Put on the colors of autumn, & feel the breezes washing you. A glad gust takes hold of you, & floating in the air, you dance away from the wilderness…away from the Sacred Place…Back to yourself. As the wind loosens its grip…you land, back into yourself, grounded, renewed & ready to walk the talk…Ready to Be…Ready to Begin, the labor of love, called your life…

See you there

xox

~Hazel Archer Ginsberg

May you be sealed for a good year in the Book Of Life

October 12, 2016Autumn, Festival, Insight, Poetry, Quote, Remembering, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Soul to Soul, Speaking with the Stars~hag

12 October 2016 – Astro-Weather: Although the Orionid meteor shower doesn’t peak until next week (the morning of the 21st), you should see a few “shooting stars” associated with it before dawn these next few days. The Moon-free observing conditions in the morning sky now offer better viewing prospects than the waning gibbous Moon will at the shower’s peak. These meteors appear to radiate from the northern part of the constellation Orion the Hunter

As evening grows late, below the Moon — about two fists at arm’s length — for Fomalhaut: the “Autumn Star” & the bright mouth of faint Piscis Austrinus, the Southern Fish

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Those who work with the Original indications in the Calendar of the Soul know that Rudolf Steiner lists the birth & death days, as well as other significant occurrences of various individualities, along with the dates in the calendar. He said of this: “What is presented here can be useful to those who wish to follow the path of mankind’s spiritual development” ~Rudolf Steiner

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Francisco Goya

Fiestas del Pilar -Feast Day of Our Lady of the Pillar – the name given to the Blessed Virgin Mary in connection with an ancient Spanish tradition that she appeared to the Apostle James the Greater as he was praying by the banks of the Ebro at Zaragoza. Mary is often depicted carrying the Child Jesus on her arms resting above a pillar, sometimes carried by angelic cherubs. The Virgin Mary is invoked under this title as the Patroness of Spain

1279 – Nichiren Daishonin, a Japanese Buddhist monk founder of Nichiren Buddhism, is said to have inscribed the Dai-Gohonzon – a venerated calligraphic mandala image inscribed with Sanskrit and Chinese characters on a plank of Japanese camphorwood

Piero della Francesca

1492 – Deathday of Piero della Francesca, Italian mathematician & painter

1582 – Because of the implementation of the Gregorian calendar this day does not exist in this year in Italy, Poland, Portugal & Spain.

1654 – The Delft Thunderclap (a gunpowder store exploded) devastating the Netherlands, killing more than 100 people & wounding over 2000

1692 – The Salem witch trials are ended by a letter from Massachusetts Governor William Phips

1845 – Deathday of Elizabeth Fry, an English prison reformer, social reformer &, as a Quaker, a Christian philanthropist. She has sometimes been referred to as the “angel of prisons”. She was depicted on the Bank of England £5 note

Unicursal Hexagram

1875 – Birthday of Aleister Crowley, an English occultist, ceremonial magician, poet, painter, novelist, & mountaineer. He founded the religion of Thelema, identifying himself as the prophet entrusted with guiding humanity into the Æon of Horus in the early 20th century.

Born to a wealthy Plymouth Brethren family, Crowley rejected this fundamentalist Christian faith to pursue an interest in Western esotericism. He was educated at the University of Cambridge, where he focused his attentions on mountaineering & poetry, resulting in several publications. Some biographers allege that here he was recruited into a British intelligence agency, suggesting that he remained a spy throughout his life. In 1898 he joined the esoteric Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, where he was trained in ceremonial magic by Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers & Allan Bennett.

Moving to Boleskine House by Loch Ness in Scotland, he went mountaineering in Mexico with Oscar Eckenstein, before studying Hindu & Buddhist practices in India. He married Rose Edith Kelly & in 1904 they honeymooned in Cairo, Egypt, where Crowley claimed to have been contacted by a supernatural entity named Aiwass, who provided him with The Book of the Law, a sacred text that served as the basis for Thelema. Announcing the start of the Æon of Horus, The Book declared that its followers should adhere to the code of “Do what thou wilt” & seek to align themselves with their Will through the practice of magick.

After an unsuccessful attempt to climb Kanchenjunga & a visit to India & China, Crowley returned to Britain, where he attracted attention as a prolific author of poetry, novels, & occult literature. In 1907, he & George Cecil Jones co-founded a Thelemite order, the A∴A∴, through which they propagated the religion.

After spending time in Algeria, in 1912 he was initiated into another esoteric order, the German-based Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.), rising to become the leader of its British branch, which he reformulated in accordance with his Thelemite beliefs. Through the O.T.O., Thelemite groups were established in Britain, Australia, & North America.

Crowley spent the First World War in the United States, where he took up painting & campaigned for the German war effort against Britain, later revealing that he had infiltrated the pro-German movement to assist the British intelligence services. In 1920 he established the Abbey of Thelema, a religious commune in Cefalù, Sicily where he lived with various followers. His libertine lifestyle led to denunciations in the British press, & the Italian government evicted him in 1923. He divided the following two decades between France, Germany, & England, and continued to promote Thelema until his death.

Crowley gained widespread notoriety during his lifetime, being a recreational drug experimenter, bisexual & an individualist social critic. He was denounced in the popular press as “the wickedest man in the world”. Crowley has remained a highly influential figure over Western esotericism & the counter-culture, & continues to be considered a prophet in Thelema. In 2002, a BBC poll ranked him as the seventy-third greatest Briton of all time.

1915 -Deathday of Edith Louisa Cavell a British nurse, celebrated for saving the lives of soldiers from both sides without discrimination & in helping some 200 Allied soldiers escape from German-occupied Belgium during the First World War, for which she was arrested. She was accused of treason, found guilty by a court-martial & sentenced to death. Despite international pressure for mercy, she was shot by a German firing squad. She is well known for her statement that “patriotism is not enough”.

1918 – A massive forest fire kills 453 people in Cloquet, Minnesota

1964 – The Soviet Union launches the Voskhod 1 into Earth orbit as the first spacecraft with a multi-person crew and the first flight without space suits

1992 – A 5.8 earthquake occurred in Cairo, Egypt. At least 1510 died

1994 – The Magellan spacecraft burns up in the atmosphere of Venus

2005 – The second Chinese human spaceflight Shenzhou 6 launched, spent five days in orbit

Freethought Day is October 12, the annual observance by freethinkers & secularists of the anniversary of the effective end of the Salem Witch Trials

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Kurt Plinke

MY POD (Poem Of the Day)

~This morning it was dark when I awoke…

I noticed the West window held a dying flame

As I watched, a swallow darting thru the shadows

Flit, catching moths

Night bristles on her back…

In her mouth melts a berry of god-thought,

Desire folded into her wings…

She swoops, she dives in dark dreams, perfect in the dawning…

~hag

***

During the time of Michaelmas a shift occurs within us, echoing outside of us in nature, & reflected in various cultural expressions & traditions. At the height of ‘The High Holy Days’, or ‘Days of Awe’ is Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, which comes ten days after Rosh Hashanah, the ‘Head of the New Year’ & refers to the annual Jewish observance of fasting, prayer & repentance, which started last night at sunset.

It is the moment in time to dedicate mind, body, & soul to reconciliation –
with God, our fellow human beings, & ourselves. A time to turn to those who we have wronged, acknowledging the pain we might have caused. At the same time, being willing to forgive & to let go of the offenses & the feelings of resentment they provoked in us.

This journey for both seekers & givers of pardon mirrors the journey a soul takes after death.

According to Jewish tradition, God inscribes each person’s fate for the coming year into the ‘Book of Life’ on Rosh Hashanah, & waits until Yom Kippur to “seal” the verdict.

Yom Kippur is a day of hope & optimism, in addition to a solemn day of soul-searching. The Day of Atonement provides a unique awareness of one’s own character & track record, as well as the opportunity to upgrade relationships with relatives, friends, associates & the community at-large.

Yom Kippur’s focus on forgiveness, highlights humility, fallibility, soul-searching faith, compassion, thoughtfulness, being considerate, accepting responsibility & magnanimity.

The ‘birthday’ of the World & of the 1st human beings, Adam & Eve, are celebrated on Rosh Hashanah, on this Day of Atonement, Human-beings are given an opportunity to recreate themselves spiritually, each year, on Yom Kippur, which is an Acadian word for Forgiveness & Genesis.

Yom Kippur is observed on the 10th day of the Jewish month of Tishrei, whose astrological sign is Libra. Libra symbolizes key themes of Yom Kippur: scales, justice, balance, truth, symmetry, & sensitivity. Libra is ruled by the planet Venus (Noga, נגה, in Hebrew), which reflects divine light & love of other people.

The Hebrew word Kippur, כיפור (atonement/repentance), is a derivative of the Biblical word Kaporet כפורת (the cover of the Holy Ark in the Sanctuary), & Kopher, כופר (the cover of Noah’s Ark & the Holy Altar in the Temple). Yom Kippur resembles a spiritual cover (dome), which separates the holy from the mundane, or materialism. The Kippah, כיפה (skullcap), which covers one’s head during prayers, reflects a spiritual dome.

Yom Kippur calls for repentance — Teshuvah (תשובה in Hebrew). The root of Teshuvah is similar to the root of the Hebrew word for return, שובה, & שביתה, the cessation of mundane thoughts, actions & eating. It is also similar to the root of Shabbat, שבת. Yom Kippur is also called Shabbat Shabbaton — the supreme Sabbath.

The Hebrew spelling of “fast” (צם/צום) reflects the substance of Yom Kippur. It is also the root of the Hebrew word for “reduction” & “shrinking” (צמצום) of one’s wrong-doing, & the root of the Hebrew words for “eternity” (צמיתות).

“May you be sealed for a good year in the Book Of Life” – is the traditional greeting on Yom Kippur.

~Hazel Archer Ginsberg

Purpose & Direction

October 5, 2016Autumn, Insight, Lecture, Poetry, Remembering, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Soul to Soul, Speaking with the Stars~hag

5 October 2016 – Astro-Weather: The waxing crescent Moon appears to the right of Saturn this evening; & lower look for Antares. The two stand high in the southwest an hour after sunset & remain on view past 8 pm CDT

Ruddy Mars continues to put on a nice show in October’s evening sky. The Red Planet shines brightly & appears high in the south-southwest once twilight fades to darkness.

Also after dark, look just above the northeast horizon, far below high Cassiopeia for bright Capella on the rise.

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ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

International World Teachers’ Day

610 – Coronation of Byzantine Emperor Heraclius, responsible for introducing Greek as the Eastern Empire’s official language. The year Heraclius came to power, the empire was threatened on multiple frontiers. Heraclius drove the Persians out of Asia Minor and pushed deep into their territory, defeating them decisively in 627 at the Battle of Nineveh. Then peaceful relations were restored to the two deeply strained empires.

Heraclius soon experienced a new event, the Muslim conquests. Within a short period of time, the Arabs conquered Mesopotamia, Armenia & Egypt.

Heraclius entered diplomatic relations with the Croats & Serbs in the Balkans. He tried to repair the schism in the Christian church by promoting a compromise doctrine called Monothelitism. Eventually, however, this project of unity was rejected by all sides of the dispute.

Heraclius was long remembered in the Western church for his reputed feat in recovering the True Cross, which had been captured by the Persians.

After a tour of the Empire Heraclius returned the cross on March 21, 630. For Christians of the Western Medieval Europe, Heraclius was the “first crusader”. The iconography of the emperor appeared in the sanctuary at Mont Saint-Michel. The story was included in the Golden Legend, the famous 13th century compendium of hagiography, and he is sometimes shown in art showing scenes of Heraclius & Constantine I’s mother Saint Helena, traditionally responsible for the excavation of the cross.

The scene usually shown is Heraclius carrying the cross; according to the Golden Legend he insisted on doing this as he entered Jerusalem, against the advice of the Patriarch. At first, when he was on horseback (shown above), the burden was too heavy, but after he dismounted & removed his crown it became miraculously light, & the barred city gate opened of its own accord

6^th Century – Feast day of Saint Placidus & Saint Maurus, disciples of Saint Benedict. Legend has it that Saint Maurus was sent a dream – an order from Saint Benedict’s to rescue Placidus from drowning. Maurus ran across the surface of the lake below the monastery, & drew Placidus safely to shore.

1789 – French Revolution: Women of Paris march to Versailles to confront Louis XVI of France about his refusal to promulgate the decrees on the abolition of feudalism, demand bread, & have the King & his court moved to Paris.

1793 – French Revolution: Christianity is disestablished in France

1864 – The Indian city of Calcutta is almost totally destroyed by a cyclone; 60,000 die

1948 – The 1948 Ashgabat earthquake kills 110,000, equivalent to almost 10% of the USSR’s Turkmen population. Due to censorship by the national (Soviet Turkmen) government, the event was not widely reported in the USSR’s media. Historians tend to agree that the ban on reporting the extent of the casualties & damage did not allow the central Soviet government to allocate enough financial resources to adequately respond

1966 – Near Detroit, Michigan, there is a partial core meltdown at the Enrico Fermi demonstration nuclear breeder reactor

1970 – The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is founded

1982 – Chicago Tylenol murders: Johnson & Johnson initiates a nationwide product recall in the United States for all products in its Tylenol brand after several bottles in Chicago are found to have been laced with cyanide, resulting in seven deaths

1986 – Israeli secret nuclear weapons are revealed. The British newspaper The Sunday Times runs Mordechai Vanunu’s story on its front page under the headline: “Revealed — the secrets of Israel’s nuclear arsenal”

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My POD (Poem Of the Day)

~Simply finding

The driving force present in my soul depths…

When I look within, I find a strong yearning

A powerful force living as a seed

Gestating future development

As we press on into the Autumn…

~hag

***

Part 5, From the Michaelmas 30 September 2016 Lecture: Heart-Thinking: Michael Beckoning by ~Hazel Archer Ginsberg

Remember that picture of the 9 Angelic Realms? Spiritual Science says we have a cosmic aim within world evolution linked with the further development of the elemental beings. These spirits behind nature, dwelling in the mineral, plant, & animal kingdoms, seek to rise to a higher existence in the evolutionary process, just as we do, BUT for them, this can only be accomplished by passing through conscious human beings!

When we enter into a right relationship with them, (that’s what the true meaning of morality is: right relationship) when we use heart-thinking to awaken consciously to our experience of nature, enlivening our sense perceptions with wonder, awe & reverence, the elemental beings can attain to this higher stage of evolution.

Rudolf Steiner tells us that we can develop a Gemüt content to our thinking, which shows us how every blossom bears testimony to the existence of an enchanted elemental being within it; & that thru our Heart-Thinking we can learn to feel the longing in this elemental being hoping to be released by us, instead of being delivered up to the Dragon.

So my dear friends, when the flowers fade in the autumn, we can choose not to turn away in antipathy from the decay, instead we can enter into right relationship by warming our mind with a loving heart, & with a sense of wonder, stimulate our soul’s imaginative power; knowing that we are succeeding, thru our Heart-Thinking, in contributing to the progress of spirit in the world. We can enable, thru our awakened consciousness, the elemental beings to slip out of their blossoms when they wither & become seed. We can lead the elemental being up into the spirit for which it yearns, when we can permeate ourselves with the powerful strength of Michael.

To do this we must really live into & experience the cycles of the seasons. Some folks, (who may be overly fond of their intellects) may think that ‘the festivals are just for kids & old ladies’, but what a shame for them – since they will miss the opportunity to tread the initiatory path of the New Mysteries, laid out by Rudolf Steiner thru the working of the festivals.

Today we can stand, after the time of balance provided by the Fall Equinox, & look across the circle to the Spring Equinox, the time of sprouting, the time when the Resurrection forces of Easter-Tide grow in us. We can re-member what we took in then, & re-experience Spring as the birth of elemental beings longing for the spirit, & then in Autumn, we can call up in ourselves these Resurrection forces – because now, during the fall, is when we really need them, to activate the liberation of the elemental beings from the dying plants; & this in turn fortifies us for the dark of the year.

Does anyone else find it an open secret that we call Autumn, the fall? Doesn’t it remind you of the fall from paradise? No mere coincidence I think.

Spiritual Science tells us that the transformation of nature is part of our own destiny – Just as the blood circulation inside us is essential for our existence, the circulation of the elemental beings between earth & the heavens is indispensable for us as well. This is how we can be Michaelic warriors in the battle with the Dragon.

So can you see? That what leads to true a Michaelmas Festival must be a deed of human heart-thinking, a Gemüt event, that can experience the cycle of the seasons as a living reality.

Rudolf Steiner reminds us: “A person who looks out into space & sees the shooting stars should say to himself, with reverence for the gods: ‘What is happening in the great expanse of space has its minute counterpart continuously in myself. Out there are the shooting stars, while in every one of my blood corpuscles iron is taking form. My life is full of shooting stars, miniature shooting stars.”

This process is continuous, but it is especially important at the end of summer, because the sulphur process of the dragon is at its peak. When human beings are ‘shining like glow-worms saturated with sulphur’, then when autumn approaches, the counter-force of iron comes in from the cosmos to bring a balance. This is a good example of the connection between the inner human & the cosmos.

While the sulphur rises in bluish-yellow clouds from the lower part of the human being towards the head, the iron-forming process rays out from our head, & pours like a stream of meteors into the life of our blood.

This is a picture of the human being at Michaelmas. We must learn to make conscious use of this meteoric force in our blood. The ability to experience in our blood circulation the pulse-beat of the outer existence of the stars is the preparation needed for the Michael Festival.

In the sun circles of the Mithras & ancient Druid Mysteries, the great language of the heavens was deciphered, & then applied to earthly things. The disciple was taught to perceive the course of the seasons within, by means of the heart organization; they knew that the human heart was really a subconscious sense organ. What they studied when they looked at themselves thru their heart, was the spirit of the sun’s annual passage through the zodiac. In this way the disciples experienced themselves as a higher being, riding on their lower nature; (the Bull) & so it was fitting that the cosmos would be arranged in a circle around them; in this manner cosmic spirituality was experienced.

As modern spiritual scientists we can foster a spirit of reverence for the ancient cultures & work to rediscover how to apply the heart-science that is appropriate now.

And so, my dear friends, this is what I wanted to bring to you today: The idea that Heart-Thinking, is the modern antidote to the dragon – Heart-Thinking which empowers our will to consciously receive sense impressions, to let in the spiritual sun; the source of the Resurrection-forces; which enable the human intelligence to unite again with the cosmic intelligence.

In the spirit-realms, Michael’s battle with the dragon has been concluded victoriously. It is here on earth that humanity still has to complete it, in alliance with Michael-Whose gesture is no longer only that of battle. He raises his hand beckoning. The hand that was stretched out aggressively, in a threatening manner against the adversarial forces, has changed in our time, & is now beckoning. We don’t kill the dragon folks, we tame it.

Our work today is to begin to feel this transformation reflected in Michael’s gesture. As giver of Cosmic Intelligence, Michael counts on us to become free human beings, that we may return this gesture in kind.

I leave you now with a question, Could this someday lead to a true healing of the adversarial forces? And finally: Who is like god?

In service to love

~Hazel Archer Ginsberg

I leave for the AGM early Tomorrow, 6 October, 2016. I will not have internet, so my posts will resume on Monday 10 October.

Xox

The Interior Castle

October 4, 2016Autumn, Lecture, Poetry, Quote, Remembering, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Soul to Soul, Speaking with the Stars~hag

4 October 2016 – Astro-Weather: As twilight fades, the Moon is poised between Venus to its lower right & the Saturn-Antares pair to its left. Antares twinkles below Saturn.

Vega is the brightest star very high in the west at nightfall. Arcturus, equally bright, is getting low in the west-northwest. The brightest star in the vast expanse between them, about a third of the way from Arcturus back up toward Vega, is Alphecca, the crown jewel of Corona Borealis. Alphecca is a 17-day eclipsing binary, but its brightness dips are too slight for the eye to see reliably

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ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

“To truly know the world, look deeply within your own being; to truly know yourself, take real interest in the world.” Rudolf Steiner

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

Feast Day of Crispus & Gaius, Martyrs baptized by St. Paul at Corinth, Greece. Crispin headed the local Jewish synagogue. Gaius served as St. Paul’s host & was praised by St. John. Before being martyred, Crispin served as the bishop of the Aegean Islands, & Gaius served as bishop of Thessalonica, Greece.

1 Corinthians 1:14 – I thank God that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius

Acts 10:48 – So he ordered that Crispus and Gaius be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to stay for a few days.

Acts 18:8 – Crispus, the synagogue leader, and his whole household believed in the Lord. And many of the Corinthians who heard the message believed and were baptized.

Romans 16:23 – Gaius, who has hosted me and all the church, sends you greetings. Erastus, the city treasurer, sends you greetings, as does our brother Quartus.

3 John 1:1 – The elder, To the beloved Gaius, whom I love in the truth

Lucas Cranach the Younger

1515 Birthday of Lucas Cranach the Younger, He is known for portraits & mythical scenes

The ecstasy of St. Teresa by Bernini

1582 – Deathday of Saint Teresa of Ávila, a prominent Spanish mystic, saint, Carmelite nun, theologian of contemplative life through mental prayer & author during the Counter Reformation.

Her books, which include her autobiography (The Life of Teresa of Jesus) & her seminal work El Castillo Interior (The Interior Castle), are an integral part of Spanish Renaissance literature as well as Christian mysticism & Christian meditation practices. She also wrote Camino de Perfección (The Way of Perfection).

Teresa of Avila was born in 1515. Her paternal grandfather, was a marrano (Jewish convert to Christianity) & was condemned by the Spanish Inquisition for allegedly returning to the Jewish faith. Her father, bought a knighthood & successfully assimilated into Christian society. Teresa’s mother, was especially keen to raise her daughter as a pious Christian. Teresa was fascinated by accounts of the lives of the saints, & ran away from home at age seven with her brother Rodrigo to find martyrdom among the Moors.

When Teresa was 14 her mother died; this resulted in Teresa becoming grief-stricken. This prompted her to embrace a deeper devotion to the Virgin Mary as her spiritual mother. Along with this good resolution, however, she also developed immoderate interests in reading popular fiction (consisting, at that time, mostly of medieval tales of knighthood) & caring for her own appearance. Teresa was sent for her education to the Augustinian nuns at Ávila.

In the monastery she suffered greatly from illness. Early in her sickness, she experienced periods of religious ecstasy through the use of the devotional book the Third Spiritual Alphabet. This work, consisted of directions for examinations of conscience & for spiritual self-concentration (known in mystical nomenclature as oratio recollectionis). She also employed other mystical ascetic works.

She claimed that during her illness she rose from the lowest stage, “recollection”, to the “devotions of silence” or even to the “devotions of ecstasy”, which was one of perfect union with God. During this final stage, she said she frequently experienced a rich “blessing of tears.”

The kernel of Teresa’s mystical thought throughout all her writings is the ascent of the soul in four stages (The Autobiography Chs. 10-22):

The 1st Devotion of Heart, is mental prayer of devout concentration or contemplation. It is the withdrawal of the soul from without & especially the devout observance of the passion of Christ & penitence

The 2nd Devotion of Peace, is where human will is surrendered to God. This is by virtue of a charismatic, supernatural state given by God, while the other faculties, such as memory, reason, & imagination, are not yet secure from worldly distraction. While a partial distraction is due to outer performances such as repetition of prayers & writing down spiritual things, yet the prevailing state is one of quietude

The 3rd Devotion of Union, is absorption in God. It is not only a supernatural but an essentially ecstatic state. Here there is also an absorption of the reason in God, & only the memory & imagination are left to roam. This state is characterized by a blissful peace, a sweet slumber of at least the higher soul faculties, or a conscious rapture in the love of God

The 4th Devotion of Ecstasy, is where the consciousness of being in the body disappears. Sense activity ceases; memory & imagination are also absorbed in God or intoxicated. Body & spirit are in the throes of a sweet, happy pain, alternating between a fearful fiery glow, a complete impotence & unconsciousness, & a spell of strangulation, sometimes by such an ecstatic flight that the body is literally lifted into space. This after half an hour is followed by a reactionary relaxation of a few hours in a swoon-like weakness, attended by a negation of all the faculties in the union with God. The subject awakens from this in tears; it is the climax of mystical experience, producing a trance. Indeed, she was said to have been observed levitating during Mass on more than one occasion.

Teresa is one of the foremost writers on mental prayer, & her position among writers on mystical theology is unique. In all her writings on this subject she deals with her personal experiences. Her deep insight & analytical gifts helped her to explain them clearly. Her definition was used in the Catechism of the Catholic Church: “Contemplative prayer in my opinion is nothing else than a close sharing between friends; it means taking time frequently to be alone with him who we know loves us.” She used a metaphor of mystic prayer as watering a garden throughout her writings.

Around 1556, various friends suggested that her newfound knowledge was diabolical, not divine. She began to inflict various tortures & mortifications of the flesh upon herself. But her confessor, the Jesuit Saint Francis Borgia, reassured her of the divine inspiration of her thoughts. On St. Peter’s Day in 1559, Teresa became firmly convinced that Jesus Christ presented himself to her in bodily form, though invisible. These visions lasted almost uninterrupted for more than two years. In another vision, a seraph drove the fiery point of a golden lance repeatedly through her heart, causing an ineffable spiritual-bodily pain.

I saw in his hand a long spear of gold, and at the point there seemed to be a little fire. He appeared to me to be thrusting it at times into my heart, and to pierce my very entrails; when he drew it out, he seemed to draw them out also, and to leave me all on fire with a great love of God. The pain was so great, that it made me moan; and yet so surpassing was the sweetness of this excessive pain, that I could not wish to be rid of it…

This vision was the inspiration for one of Bernini’s most famous works, the Ecstasy of Saint Teresa at Santa Maria della Vittoria in Rome.

The memory of this episode served as an inspiration throughout the rest of her life, & motivated her lifelong imitation of the life & suffering of Jesus, epitomized in the motto usually associated with her: Lord, either let me suffer or let me die.

Christ has no body but yours,

No hands, no feet on earth but yours,

Yours are the eyes with which he looks

Compassion on this world,

Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,

Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.

Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,

Yours are the eyes, you are his body.

Christ has no body now but yours,

No hands, no feet on earth but yours,

Yours are the eyes with which he looks

compassion on this world.

Christ has no body now on earth but yours.

~Teresa of Ávila

1582 – Pope Gregory XIII implements the Gregorian calendar. In Italy, Poland, Portugal, & Spain, October 4 of this year is followed directly by October 15

1669 – Deathday of Rembrandt

1927 – Gutzon Borglum begins sculpting Mount Rushmore

1957 – Space Race: Launch of Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth

1960 – Eastern Air Lines Flight 375, a Lockheed L-188 Electra, crashes after a bird strike on takeoff from Boston’s Logan International Airport, killing 62 people (out of 72 onboard).

1963 – Hurricane Flora kills 6,000 in Cuba & Haiti

1970 – Deathday of Janis Joplin

1992 – El Al Flight 1862: An El Al Boeing 747-258F crashes into two apartment buildings in Amsterdam, killing 43 including 39 on the ground

2001 – Siberia Airlines Flight 1812: A Sibir Airlines Tupolev Tu-154 crashes into the Black Sea after being struck by an errant Ukrainian S-200 missile. Seventy-eight people are killed

2004 – SpaceShipOne wins Ansari X Prize for private spaceflight, by being the first private craft to fly into space

2006 – Wikileaks is launched by Julian Assange

2010 – The Ajka plant accident in western Hungary releases 35 million cubic feet of liquid alumina sludge. Nine people are killed & 122 injured, & the Marcal & Danube rivers are severely contaminated

***

My POD (Poem Of the Day)

~Now i 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 inundating dark

Do you recognize me…?

~hag

***

Part 4, From the Michaelmas 30 September 2016 Lecture: Heart-Thinking: Michael Beckoning by ~Hazel Archer Ginsberg

Spiritual Science tells us, that basically humanity takes in nature in three ways:

1) Via nutrition (that’s why paying attention to things like GMO’s & supporting bio-dynamics is so important)

2) air/light (the yogi’s knew the importance of breath-control, & Steiner talks about how in the future we will take in light as we do air)

& 3) Thru our senses (of course Spiritual Science gives us 12 senses, but without going into that here, I hope you get the gist)

The dragon can enter into our existence through what we take into ourselves in these 3 ways; in other words, our unconscious sense impressions can become food for the dragon. He is super-sensibly in us as a constant developer of his own selfish purposes. So that now, as human beings we are in constant battle within ourselves. Do you ever feel like you are your own worst enemy?

The dragon in us requires our sense experiences to nourish him. He avidly eats up what enters us, unless, we can develop heart-thinking to consciously use our sense perceptions differently.

What do I mean by that? Let me give a couple crude examples:

On the one hand we have a normal materialistic dude who grumbles out of bed when the alarm goes off, wolfs down a pop-tart, road rages his way to the office, sits all day in a cubicle staring at a computer screen, comes home & watches TV. This guy is the dragon’s best friend; they cozy up on the couch eating junk food & fighting over the remote. You get the picture.

On the other hand say there’s a woman who wakes up to the sound of the birds every morning & lingers to contemplate what may have come from the night. She lovingly cooks a bio-dynamic breakfast, says a prayer & eats it with reverence. On her way to work, she always takes a moment to commune with the catalpa tree on the corner. At work she is helpful & has moral integrity. When she comes home maybe she putters around in the garden.

Now we can take that example even further- What if a person’s karma has led them to anthroposophy? Perhaps then, when she works in the garden, she tries consciously to connect with the spirit behind nature. To acknowledge the elemental beings: the Gnomes & Trolls of the earth-realm, while digging in the soil, asking: What are the worms telling me today? – Tuning into the Sylphs, the fairies of air – Listening to the wind? – Taking in the power of the Salamanders thru the fiery rays of the Sun, seeking to integrate its warmth into her blood, into her will? – Working with the spirits of water, the Undines, perhaps stirring the bio-dynamic preps, asking: Can I learn to be adaptable, like water, flowing, freezing, rising as steam…As teachers you are helping the children learn Imaginative cognition thru your stories of these realms.

Since the dragon is a super-sensible being in the sense world – it attracts the super-sensible elemental forces that live in nature, which are constantly streaming toward humanity in the form of sense perceptions. If we remain unconscious to what enters us thru our sense perceptions, we are constantly uniting them with the Dragon – allowing them, because of our unconsciousness, to perish with the Dragon in our lower nature, instead of releasing the elementals from their spell, through our heart-thinking.

Tomorrow I will have to give all the rest of this lecture in one bite, as I am leaving for the AGM early Thursday 6 Oct. in Spring Valley. I will not have internet, so my posts will resume on Monday 10 October.

Xox

~Hazel Archer Ginsberg

The Shepherds must become Kings & the Kings-Shepherds

October 3, 2016Autumn, Lecture, Poetry, Quote, Remembering, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Soul to Soul, Speaking with the Stars~hag

3 October 2016 – Astro-Weather: A slender crescent Moon appears above Venus in this evening’s sky. The pairing of the night sky’s two brightest objects set against the vivid colors of twilight will make a stunning scene

MOON TRINE NEPTUNE: This is a good time for collaboration and transcendent events. Best possible outcome is to enrich the soul.

MOON CONJUNCT VENUS: Take advantage of this beautiful moment, favorable circumstances, and good moods to advance your agenda.

MARS SQUARE JUPITER: Be ready to toot your own horn and get things going in order to pass the test! Attention to production, outreach, or installation processes is worthwhile.

~Astrological Forecast by Victoria Martin viccimartin@gmail.com

***

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

La Shanah Tovah

Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year, (רֹאשׁ הַשָּׁנָה‎, literally “head of the year”) is the first of the High Holy Days or Yamim Noraim (Days of Awe), a two-day celebration that started last night & is believed to be the anniversary of the creation of Adam & Eve, & their first actions toward the realization of humanity’s role in the world. It weds seriousness with celebration & begins the 10 days of repentance that culminate in Yom Kippur.

The New Year focuses our attention on themes of judgment, repentance, memory & the divine presence in the world. At the same time, Rosh Hashanah invites us to celebrate birth & creation on many levels. The liturgy suggests that Rosh Hashanah commemorates the creation of the world. Family-oriented services often include a birthday cake for the world.

Customs include sounding the shofar (a hollowed-out ram’s horn) & eating symbolic foods such as apples dipped in honey to emphasize the sweetness of starting the cycle of seasons once again, & round challah to remind us of the cycles of life.

Lucas Cranach the Elder

508 BC – Deathday of Lucretia an ancient Roman woman whose fate played a vital role in the transition of Roman government from the Roman Kingdom to the Roman Republic. She committed suicide after being raped by an Etruscan king’s son was the immediate cause of the anti-monarchist rebellion that overthrew the monarchy. As a result of its sheer impact, the rape itself became a major theme in European art & literature

Deathay of Jarius. The record of the daughter of Jairus is a combination of miracles of Jesus in the Gospels (Mark 5:21–43, Matthew 9:18–26, Luke 8:40–56) The story immediately follows the exorcism at Gerasa. Jairus, a patron or ruler of a Galilee synagogue, had asked Jesus to heal his 12-year-old daughter. As they were traveling to Jairus’ house, a sick woman in the crowd touched Jesus’ cloak & was healed of her sickness. Jesus turned round to the woman & says: “Take heart, daughter,” your faith has healed you. Go in peace.” Moments later, a messenger arrived with the news that Jairus’ daughter had died, & he was advised not to trouble Jesus any further. However, Jesus responded: Be not afraid, only believe. (Mark 5:36) Jesus continued to the house, where he informed all those present that the girl was not dead but asleep. He then went upstairs & restored the little girl to life. In Mark’s account, the Aramaic phrase “Talitha Koum” (transliterated into Greek as ταλιθα κουμ meaning, “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”) is attributed to Jesus

Deathday of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, a Syrian Christian theologian & philosopher of the late 5th to early 6th century, the author of the set of works commonly referred to as the Corpus Areopagiticum or Corpus Dionysiacum, portraying himself as the Athenian convert of Paul of Tarsus mentioned in Acts 17:34 (Some of the people became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus) This attribution to the earliest decades of Christianity resulted in the work being given great authority in subsequent theological writing in both East & West. His works are mystical & show strong Neoplatonic influence. For example he uses Plotinus’ well-known analogy of a sculptor cutting away that which does not enhance the desired image.

In a letter addressed to Polycarp, pseudo-Dionysius asks “What have you to say about the solar eclipse which occurred when the Savior was put on the Cross? At the time the two of us were in Heliopolis and we both witnessed the extraordinary phenomenon of the moon hiding the sun at the time that was out of season for their coming together…. We saw the moon begin to hide the sun from the east, travel across to the other side of the sun, and return on its path so that the hiding and the restoration of the light did not take place in the same direction but rather in diametrically opposite directions.…” This is illustrated in an astronomical fresco in the main gallery of the Escorial Library, near Madrid, Spain, which shows Dionysius the Areopagite observing an eclipse at the time of Christ’s crucifixion.

Luke, 23-45 (It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness came over all the land until the ninth hour. 45The sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was torn down the middle) We can notice a quadrant & an astrolabe in the hands of the amazed men!

287 AD – Deathday of Saint Candidus. The Golden Legend states that he was a commander of the Theban Legion, which was composed of Christians from Upper Egypt. He opposed Maximian, who had ordered them to harass the local Christians in his name, stating that “we are your soldiers, but we are also servants of the true God. We cannot renounce Him who is our Creator and Master, and also yours even though you reject Him.” Candidus, along with St. Maurice, the other staff officers & 6,600 soldiers, were martyred at the Swiss town of Saint Maurice-en-Valais

1226 – Deathday of Francis of Assisi, Italian friar & saint. Based on a study of the life of Francis of Assisi, Rudolf Steiner shows how the development of morality is based on the belief in the Divine at the bottom of every human soul, on the boundless love that springs from this belief, and on the hope for each human soul that it can find its way back to the Divine. The Spiritual Foundation of Morality: Francis of Assisi and the Mission of Love see also Esoteric Christianity and the Mission of Christian Rosenkreutz, Man in the Light of Occultism, Theosophy and Philosophy, Steiner says: Francis of Assisi was wholly the sentient soul of Jesus of Nazareth in Christianity in the Evolution of Mankind, Leading Individualities and Avatar-Beings. There are many other lectures where this great personality is mentioned.

1250 – Deathday of Gilbertus Anglicus. His major work, the Compendium Medicinae, written in Latin, running to seven books, is an attempt to provide a comprehensive encyclopedia of medical & surgical knowledge as it existed in his day. He quotes extensively from Roger of Palma, & acknowledges that his work is indebted to Greek physicians including Galen, Hippocrates & Theophilus Protospatharius, & Arab physicians such as Averroes & Avicenna.

1942 – Spaceflight: The first successful launch of a V-2 /A4-rocket from Test Stand VII at Peenemünde, Germany. It is the first man-made object to reach space.

1952 – The United Kingdom successfully tests a nuclear weapon to become the world’s third nuclear power.

1962 – Project Mercury: Sigma 7 is launched from Cape Canaveral, with astronaut Wally Schirra aboard, for a six-orbit, nine-hour flight.

1963 – A violent coup in Honduras pre-empts the October 13 election, ends a period of reform, & begins two decades of military rule.

1981 – The hunger strike by Provisional Irish Republican Army & Irish National Liberation Army prisoners at the Maze Prison in Northern Ireland ends after 7months & 10 deaths.

1985 – The Space Shuttle Atlantis makes its maiden flight. (Mission STS-51-J)

1986 – TASCC, a superconducting cyclotron at the Chalk River Laboratories, is officially opened

1990 – German reunification: The German Democratic Republic ceases to exist & its territory becomes part of the Federal Republic of Germany. East German citizens became part of the European Community, which later became the European Union. Now celebrated as German Unity Day

1995 – O. J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson & Ronald Goldman

2008 – The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act is signed by President George W. Bush – commonly referred to as a bailout of the U.S. financial system, is a law enacted in response to the subprime mortgage crisis authorizing the United States Secretary of the Treasury to spend up to $700 billion to purchase distressed assets, especially mortgage-backed securities, & supply cash directly to banks

***

My POD (Poem Of the Day)

~I looked within

& saw the dragon writhing

In rags of mortality

Spitting the cold fire of fear

Binding & Hardening…

& yet my blood was hot

Pulsing with scintillating sparks

Forged From the sword of the Archai…

Now my tongue flicks flames

Licking the fingers of gods

Knowing I am

Free

~hag

***

Part 3, From the Michaelmas 30 September 2016 Lecture: Heart-Thinking: Michael Beckoning by ~Hazel Archer Ginsberg

And so in striving to understand what Heart-Thinking is, I’d like to invite you to practice a little experiment. I will relate a picture Steiner gave, & you can work to use your ‘soul’s imaginative power’ to try & ‘see’ it.

Steiner gives an imagination of the dragon writhing around the animalistic part of humanity. Perhaps you can feel it there in the lower chakras, even coiling around the heart in some folks. But then – also, behind us, at the back of the head, – picture the cosmic figure of Michael, towering, radiant, retaining his cosmic nature but reflecting it in our higher human nature, so that our etheric body, that part of us that holds our formative, life forces, reflects etherically the cosmic figure of Michael. Can you feel it there in your back space? Then, Steiner says, there becomes visible in the human head, a kind of protective helmet, whose power pours down the spine, into the heart, causing blood to flow down from the heart to the limbs – moving the power of Michael in a leminscate, from head to heart to limbs, so we can put our will into action.

This is important because a big part in how we conquer the dragon is being able to recognize it. So with our Heart-thinking we can wake up to this & say: Ok, yes, the power of the Dragon is working within me, I might not see it – but I can feel it as a force that wants to drag me down below my true self. But in the spirit I also ‘see’ the luminous Angel whose cosmic task has always been the vanquishing of the Dragon.

I concentrate my Gemüt upon this glowing figure, I let its light stream into my heart-thinking so that my illumined & warmed soul forces can bear within it the strength of Michael. And out of a free resolution I will be able, through my alliance with Michael, to conquer the Dragon’s might in my own lower nature.

So…How did you do with our little experiment?

Some folks find it easy to work with imaginative pictures & some folks are more comfortable working with the intellect. We all, thru our individual temperaments & karma, tend to relate either to the head or the heart. (The 2 streams: Platonic & Aristotelian ) Of course our work is to bring them into balance, (The Shepherds must become Kings & the Kings-Shepherds) but since we began with the imagination, let’s work from the other side of the coin to formulate a more intellectual approach to understanding Heart-Thinking.

Tomorrow we begin there

~Hazel Archer Ginsberg

***

Saturday 15 October 2016 Opening (Closing event 12 November 2016)

Calaj.com Artists Matthew Schaefer and Janet Trierweiler Schaefer present:

“Silent Lecture” Art Exhibit & Discussion

1pm – 4pm Paintings on view (in the un-rented space next to the Branch)

2:30 Artist Discussion – topics may include:

Setting limits to hold the limitless.

Human systems at work.

The fallible element, how it works in art.

The steps or ritual.

The visible/invisible origin.

Finding the spiritual in art through a primitive gesture.

A cognitive transformation, instinct to intuition.

Snacks to Share Encouraged

For more info. Contact Hazel Archer Ginsberg

Cognitive Ritual

~Confessions of a Modern Rosicrucian

Category Archives: Speaking with the Stars

Autumn: A Guided Meditation

May you be sealed for a good year in the Book Of Life

Purpose & Direction

The Interior Castle

The Shepherds must become Kings & the Kings-Shepherds

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