2 May 2017 – Astro-Weather: The First Quarter Moon hangs high in the southwest as darkness falls, then sinks steadily toward the western horizon throughout the evening hours. Our satellite officially reaches First Quarter phase at 9:47 pm CDT among the background stars of Cancer the Crab. It will remain on view until it dips below the horizon after 2 am.

María León

The annual eta Aquarid meteor shower is underway. These meteors are pieces of Halley’s Comet, hitting Earth’s atmosphere above Earth’s surface. In the days ahead our planet will cross a network of debris streams from the comet, producing a drizzle of eta Aquarids numbering 10 to 30 meteors per hour in the northern hemisphere & perhaps twice that number in the southern hemisphere.

Activity could increase on May 4th when Earth grazes a dust trail released by Comet Halley in the year 616. The strongest activity is seen around May 6^th.

The best time to look, no matter where you live, is during the dark hours just before dawn when the constellation Aquarius is rising in the east.

Tomorrow Mercury comes out of retrograde.

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Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

1519 – Death Day of Leonardo da Vinci, Italian painter, sculptor, & architect.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1933 – Gleichschaltung: Adolf Hitler bans trade unions

1945 –Fall of Berlin: The Soviet Union announces the capture of Berlin & Soviet soldiers hoist their red flag over the Reichstag building

1952 – The world’s first ever jet airliner, the De Havilland Comet 1 makes its maiden flight, from London to Johannesburg

1972 – In the early morning hours a fire breaks out at the Sunshine Mine located between Kellogg and Wallace, Idaho, killing 91 workers.

1986 –The City of Chernobyl is evacuated six days after the disaster

1998 – The European Central Bank is founded in Brussels in order to define & execute the European Union’s monetary policy

2000 – President Bill Clinton announces that accurate GPS access would no longer be restricted to the United States military

2008 – Cyclone Nargis makes landfall in Burma killing over 138,000 people & leaving millions of people homeless

2008 – Chaitén Volcano begins erupting in Chile, forcing the evacuation of more than 4,500 people.

2011 – Osama bin Laden, is killed by the United States special forces in

2014 – Two mudslides in Badakhshan, Afghanistan, leave over 2,500 people dead

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POD (Poem Of the Day)

Valerie Sjodin

~The portals of perception
Raw & cluttered await
The revealing –
It is my Self I see –
A 1000 colors swirling in liquid light
A star covered in rising clouds
Hung by a thread from its ocean Moon
Hail Self
Traversing eternity
In moral steps of time
Where the Guardian beckons
~hag

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Linda Yelson

Dear Friends – As we move deeper into the glories of Spring, under the cosmic fortitude gracing us from the annual eta Aquarid meteor showers, & the guidance of the Archangel Raphael – I will be more sporadic in my blog offerings, as I prepare for some upcoming lecture events & workshops, which I hope you will attend…

Until soon

Xox ~!Hazel Archer Ginsberg

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Exploring the Mysteries of Mid-Summer: Then & Now

Bee & Stag Bon-fire / Drum Circle (at the Michael Fields Agricultural Institute)

8 pm – 10 pm Friday June 23^rd  2017

We begin with the setting Sun, in the dark of the New Moon, by enlivening the ecstatic elements practiced by our ancient ancestors, at the time of the Summer Solstice. Thru the drumming of our collective heart-beat, circle dancing, singing to the stars, blessing the earth, & celebrating the bright reflection of the Divine within ourselves & each other, we shall pour our dream-consciousness out into the cosmos.

$20? – Bring your drum, shaker or music maker (or for $5 borrow one of ours)

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Cosmic Rapture Grounded in Jubilant Hearts

10 am – 12 noon Saturday June 24^th 2017 (at the Michael Fields Agricultural Institute)

Then in the clear light of day, Come Join our Initiatory Workshop/Ritual, as we expand our Celebration into the 21^st Century, to discover the New Mysteries of St. Johns-Tide.

To pass the test of Summer we will explore many questions:

• How do we stand wakefully within the sublime mysteries of the Summer-Tide,

to consciously embody ‘the spiritual wisdom of the gods’?

• Who is the mysterious Archangel of Summer?
• Who is John the Baptist? What do his sayings “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” And “He must increase, but I must decrease.” really mean?
• What is the secret to healing the ‘soul-fever’ so prevalent in society today?
• What is the mystery of the Dragon-fly, & other elemental beings?
• How can we understand the ‘Cycle of the Year as Breathing Process of the Earth’?

Together we will work to strengthen our true “I”, enlivening our will forces with various social-artistic exercises, Including: ‘Seeing into the Etheric World’ thru the ‘After-Image’, Eurythmy, & an exploration of Karmic investigations.

$20? – All materials included

Hazel Archer-Ginsberg – Festivals Coordinator & Council Member of the Chicago Rudolf Steiner Branch, and the Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society. Founder of Reverse Ritual – Understanding Anthroposophy Through the Rhythms of the Year– Presenter, Poet, & Trans-denominational Minister

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The Central Regional Council is hosting a Bridging to the ‘Great American Eclipse’ in St. Louis – August 19-22, 2017 stay tuned for details

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John Stolfo

Michaelmas & the Horn of Plenty – Fall Festivals Ancient and New –

Saturday, September 23^rd 2017, 1 pm – 5 pm (at the Michael Fields Agricultural Institute)

Saturday September 30^th 10:30 am – 4:30pm ( at the Theosophical Society)

Come join our Experiential Workshop/Ritual celebrating the Autumnal Equinox. We will look back to the fruits of the past, and prepare for what is coming toward us from the future. Our ancestors called this Sabbath Harvest Home or Mabon. The Hebrew folk count this as part of the High Holy Days. In Greece and Rome it is dedicated to Dionysus, or Persephone & Demeter.  Today, we are invited to stand with the powerful Archangel Micha-el, in balance, between the light and the dark, as we create the ‘festival of the future’, which we call ‘Michaelmas’.

Hazel Archer Ginsberg is a Spiritual Midwife, and Trans-denominational Minister, working in an eclectic style that inspires connections – initiating us into the magic, waiting to be revealed, in the cycle of the seasons.  Festivals Coordinator of the Rudolf Steiner Branch of the Anthroposophical Society. Lecturer, Promoter, Blogger, Poet & Performance Artist www.ReverseRitual.com

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